#and most times. my principle and vice principle.

[scribbyizhere]

"Why didn't you turn in your work"

maybe, I don't know, because the teacher didn't tell me when or what was due 🤸‍♀️🤸‍♀️

[catboydan]

.

[niningtori]

mad about you | oneshot

pairing: choi beomgyu x you, delusions of kang taehyun x you

summary: beomgyu is not only a spoiled, rich asshole whose whole life has been served to him on a silver platter, but he's also your student council vice president. things finally come to a head on your final trip as college students, but not in the way you would expect. or, beomgyu catches you, the student council president, smoking weed and tries to blackmail you for it

genre: romance, angst (only a tiny bit...? shocking i know), fluff (kinda...? shocking i know), SMUT (MDNI!!!), sub!idol, beomgyu enemies to lovers

warnings: bad writing, not proofread at all, smut (MDNI!!!), sub!gyu LMAOOOO, marijuana, dirty talk, praise, handjobs, oral (m. receiving), unprotected sex, creampie, lmk if i missed anything!

word count: 7.1k

notes: please... this took MONTHS for me to write i fear i am the worst request taker on moablr. this was really difficult for me to complete but alas... it is done. if you hate it, my fault! just please don't bully me i've got enough shit going on in my life rn 💀 i hate it too but that's okay!

being a straight-a student is hard. being the student government president? even harder. being both? hell on earth. but now, in your senior year of college, you’ve finally managed to get it down to a science. things run relatively smoothly, which is due in no small part to the blood, sweat, and tears you’ve put in to make the student body happy, never mind the lengths you've gone to for the faculty. you can confidently say you can cope with nearly every trial and tribulation that comes your way with a smile on your face. well, except for one recurring disaster: beomgyu.

at first, he was nothing more to you than a pest buzzing around for no real purpose other than to mildly annoy you. it was strange because he seemed normal at first, but then he would pick on your looks, every time you made a mistake in class, and even how you happened to wear your hair that day. this was annoying and, well, hurtful. still, it was of no real consequence, so you were able to ignore him when that was the case, but now you know better than to underestimate just how disastrous beomgyu’s presence can be. as the student government vice president, he should be your first and most trusted ally, but he’s nothing short of, for lack of a better term, a major asshole deadset on making your life even more difficult than it already is for reasons unknown to you.

you think it may be because you would have probably beaten him for the actual president’s chair, which led him to run for vice president, instead. you don’t know why he minds this, though, because he couldn’t seem to care less about the council, not to mention school in general. it’s not that he gets bad grades, because he doesn’t. in fact, when he gets called on in class, he always gets the answer right even when he clearly wasn’t paying any attention. still, you work twice as hard as anyone else and yet your grades are only rivaled by his own. even taehyun, your (probably unrequited) crush, can’t help but be beaten by beomgyu as if the hand of god itself smacks down on everyone else every time you all take a test. 

getting good grades should be an admirable thing, right? it helps with potential internships and jobs and all that, but the thing is: beomgyu doesn't need any of it. even if he fails all of his classes, he's set for life as the son of a formidable CEO of a company whose profits are more than you could ever dream of attaining. there is absolutely no doubt that beomgyu will succeed him, and there is even less doubt that he'll undeniably be very, very good at it. what’s worse is that even if he failed to meet expectations, he’d still get the position, anyway. 

that, in comparison with your family’s laughable financial circumstances, would be enough to make you secretly hate the boy just on principle; but jealousy is ugly, no doubt, so you’ve kept your feelings to yourself. you would have fallen into a pit of self-loathing and guilt had beomgyu actually been kind, and you may have even grown to like him if that were the case, but no. beomgyu is not kind. he’s a total prick. you see it in his smug little smile when the test papers get handed back and he annihilates everyone — other than you — in class, especially taehyun. you see it in the smirks he sends you when you catch him making out with whoever his new girlfriend of the week happens to be, and in the way he openly mocks you by calling you a prude in front of the entire student population. and most importantly, you see it in the way he watches you struggle to stay afloat while he cruises on by without a care in the world.

-

honestly? beomgyu knows better than to bully the girl he has a crush on just because he wants her attention, but who told you to make it so damn hard on him? it’s not like he didn’t consider being nice at first, but your aloofness to his charms only caused him to believe that he was nearly invisible to you, and he simply wouldn't stand for that. naturally, the best course of action was to get you to hate him — at least that means you’re actually paying attention to him. that’s what he tells himself as he’s sticking one of his spindly legs out as you walk past him, effectively tripping you in the process and making the entire class erupt into laughter. your nostrils flare as your head whips up to meet his condescending gaze. once again, your eyes are completely on him. check and mate.

that's what it feels like, at least, until you’re hurriedly pulled up by a concerned taehyun and he’s frantically asking if you’re alright while fixing up your (now) fucked up hair. your eyes, which were just brimming with anger and contempt for him, are now overflowing with lovesickness and infatuation for the other boy. well, never mind about the whole “checkmate” thing, it’s like beomgyu doesn’t even exist in the same world as you anymore.

-

“you need to relax,” taehyun says, gently closing the notebook in front of you and sliding over a few of your favorite snacks. 

“th-thank you, tyun,” you reply, shyly. he grins when he sees he’s succeeded in distracting you.

“no problem, we wouldn’t want that pretty little head of yours to break from thinking too much, now would we?” he teases. you feel heat rushing to your cheeks at his words. he doesn’t really mean them, he never does, but that doesn’t stop your heart from racing when he says things like this to you. 

having a crush on taehyun is only natural. that’s what you tell yourself, but the way you have a shrine dedicated to notes he’s passed you and polaroids you’ve taken together sitting prettily in your room is most definitely unnatural. he doesn’t need to know about that, though.

“my head’s not going to break,” you huff with a playful roll of your eyes. “i just need to finish outlining the major stops on the trip and i’ll be done, i promise.” 

it’s true that all you have to do is outline where you’re going to stop on the council’s senior trip, which doesn’t sound like a big deal in theory, but in actuality, you have to clear each stop with the faculty and make sure you stay within the budget in spite of beomgyu’s insufferable attempts to exceed it. he’s made light of the finances and talked up special events to the rest of the council members, even taehyun. you tried to snuff out these suggestions with realistic arguments about how expensive it will be, but his response was to call you a killjoy. simple and straightforward, but effective, nonetheless. everyone, even taehyun, was so excited to try everything he hyped up, so how could you say no when taehyun turned to you, all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, and practically begged you to relent? you, unfortunately, didn’t and don’t have the heart to deny him, so you caved, and now you’re stuck trying to figure it all out. 

“you promise?” taehyun asks, snapping you out of your spiral, with his cute cat-like fangs showing ever so slightly.

“i promise,” you nod and he cheers triumphantly. again, you can’t help but feel your cheeks warm, and you’d bask in the moment if your gaze didn’t happen to catch beomgyu’s scrutinizing one at this very moment. he looks at you like he’s watching a monkey putting on a show, and your happiness is instantly replaced with a sense of embarrassment. you’ve never told a single soul about your feelings for taehyun, but eerily enough, beomgyu seems to know something the rest of the world does not. he seems well aware of your deepest secret. why he doesn’t just expose you in order to humiliate you, you have no idea, but you do know you don't like how much he knows.

-

you really, really shouldn’t be doing this. and certainly not here, of all places, but you just can’t help it. smoking weed is terrible for you, and you of all people should know, seeing as how you led a presentation on its ill effects in front of the entire student body in your freshman year. but it’s hard to truly care when you’re wound so tightly you feel like you’re about to burst. 

beomgyu is getting his way again, as always, and you’re worried about having to make yet another last minute change to your trip’s itinerary for tomorrow because he called today’s stop boring, which led to the rest of the council silently agreeing. so here you sit on the top of the hotel building as the rest of the group are out sightseeing, taking a long, lung-scorching drag from the blunt in between your fingers. 

“didn’t take you for the smoking type, madame president,” a voice cuts in from out of nowhere. beomgyu. fuck. 

you try to keep your cool, but you end up choking on the smoke as you hurriedly go to flick the blunt away, but beomgyu’s hand grabs your wrist before you can quite make it there. his touch feels like a brand searing itself into your skin, but you’re too overstimulated to notice. 

“i didn’t tell you you had to stop,” he muses condescendingly as you rip your wrist away from his grasp. he winces. you don't catch it. instead, you can’t help but roll your eyes at the presumption that he has the power to tell you to do anything.

“i’m not one of your little minions,” you snap in spite of yourself. “quit acting like you can boss me around.” 

“is that so?” he questions, not without an air of smugness. alarm bells blare in your ears as you try to sniff out where his confidence is coming from. sure, he caught you smoking, but it’s your word against his. that’s right, there’s no need to be scared. if he says anything at all, you can just feign innocence and say you were the one who caught him sneaking out to smoke.

“yep,” you answer with a grin at your new plan, popping the “p” with the same obnoxiousness he usually terrorizes you with. you’re no match for him in terms of popularity, but you will never lose to him when it comes to credibility.

“you’re not afraid that i’ll snitch on you? you’re not scared of me telling everyone how little-miss-perfect spends her alone time?” 

“you can try,” you reply with a shrug. he’s silent for a few moments, as if he’s in deep thought. 

“you know what? you’re right,” he concedes with a sigh, and shockingly so. the beomgyu you know and loathe would never give up that easily. “you don’t have to listen to what i say. nobody would believe me over you, right?” 

you eye him suspiciously before giving a slight nod.

“and most times, you would be absolutely right. like, just imagine if i told them you faked being sick and flaking on everyone else just so you could get high. nobody would believe me. i wouldn’t even believe me,” he continues. you have no idea why he’s going on and on about this, but you don’t like it. 

“what the hell are you playing at?” you ask through clenched teeth. 

“i mean, i’m just saying that nobody would believe me. not unless i showed them something like, i don’t know, this?” he says with a grin, holding up his phone and showing you an alarmingly high resolution photo of you taking a hit of your blunt. your eyes widen in sheer horror and you immediately jump to try to retrieve his phone from his hands, but beomgyu is quicker. he tauntingly holds it up in the air with one arm and stops you from coming any closer with the other. you try to jump to reach it, but you’re no match for his stature and long limbs. damn him for being so fucking tall.

“delete it!” you shriek, but all he does is click his tongue and shake his head like the insufferable asshole he is. 

“oh, sure,” he says nonchalantly. your eyes widen even further as he lowers his phone and fiddles with the screen, still keeping you at arm’s length so you’re helpless to grab it for yourself.

“r-really?” you ask incredulously, sincerely taken aback by his compliance. stupid, stupid you. he tuts in response.

“you don’t really think i’ll make it that easy, do you?”

“fine,” you relent, jaw tense and eyebrows furrowed in an almost comically exaggerated way. “what the hell do you want from me?”

“nothing much, just lemme smoke with you,” he answers with a lopsided grin, showcasing a dimple in his cheek you had never noticed until now.

“w-what?” you ask dazedly. 

“god, you’re slow,” he tells you with a roll of his eyes. “smoke with me and i’ll delete the picture. i won’t even mention it again.” 

“are you being serious?” you whisper. 

“dead serious,” he smirks. 

“... fine,” you find yourself relenting, yet again. you don’t know if you necessarily trust him to actually follow through with his words, but what choice do you have? why he wants to smoke with you, you have no idea, but if it gets him to keep his mouth shut, then you really can’t ask for much more than that.

you sigh and take a seat, walking over near the entrance of the rooftop and propping yourself up against the concrete wall behind you. surprisingly, he stays planted in the same spot as if he didn’t hear you. you pat the ground next to you impatiently in light of his hesitation. he snaps out of his daze as he sits next to you so tentatively it’s like you’re a stray cat he’s afraid to scare off. well, good. it’s best for him not to get too comfortable around you. you hate the guy, after all.

you take another deep inhale and he watches you with a gaze that can only be described as lovesick, but you’re too preoccupied to pick up on it. when you exhale, you find yourself starting to pass the blunt over to beomgyu before thinking better of it. 

“wait,” you say, pulling your hand back before he can grip the blunt. 

“what?” he asks, genuinely confused.

“am i gonna catch something from you if we share this?” 

“oh, fuck you,” he grunts, effectively snatching the blunt back and putting it to his lips.

“it’s a real question! i’ve seen the girls you mess around with, and i’m not trying to catch anything from you!” 

“i’m careful,” he argues with a roll of his eyes. “a lot more careful than you think.” you pout at his reaction, but for some reason, you believe his words. 

“if i catch anything, it's on you,” you reply, hackles still raised. shockingly, he doesn't press the matter any more than that. 

“... so,” he says after exhaling a deep drag. 

“so what?” you ask. 

“so why are you out here smoking instead of going out with everyone else?”

“do you seriously think you have the right to ask me that?” you scoff. there’s no way in hell beomgyu is trying to get you to be vulnerable right now.

on beomgyu’s end, he can’t help but feel slighted, even though your reaction is definitely his fault on account of how he essentially antagonizes you at every given opportunity. 

“i’m just saying that it’s weird how you’re here instead of, you know, actually enjoying the trip.” 

“oh, please. as if there was gonna be any possible way for me to have fun on this fucking thing,” you bitterly reply. 

“what’s that supposed to mean?” he asks without any malice, but with genuine curiosity.

truly, honestly, sincerely, you do not know why you say your next words. maybe it’s because you’re high, or maybe it’s because you need to tell someone — anyone — how you really feel, for once. all you really know is: you can’t stop yourself.

“i mean, how could i possibly enjoy myself when i’m left to figure everything out on my own? everyone only cares about having fun with no actual idea how we’ll do it while realistically staying within the budget and our timeline, and my vice president is deadweight, so it’s not like he’ll help,” you complain, taking a jab at beomgyu in light of your waning self control. you’re prepared to verbally spar with him after that last comment, but he surprises you.

“is that how you really feel?” he asks.

“yeah, it is,” you tell him. “that’s how i always feel,” you can’t help but add, more to yourself and less to him, but he hears you, anyway. 

“i’m sorry.” you whip your head around to make sure you’re not having some sort of auditory hallucination. did beomgyu just apologize to you? it can’t be. there’s no earthly way.

“i’m sorry. i really am,” he repeats. your whole world feels like it’s thrown off of its axis when you see how somber and genuinely apologetic he looks. 

“it’s… it’s fine,” is all you can really muster up the words to say. 

“no, it’s not. i’ll help you as much as i can, i swear,” he earnestly insists. you nod in bewilderment at his earnestness — feeling too awkward to do much else.

things are quiet for the next few minutes while you two are passing the blunt back and forth. beomgyu can feel the high finally hitting him in full force, and it takes every brain cell within his clouded mind (as well as every ounce of his courage) to finally get out his next sentence. 

“why him?” he mumbles so lowly, you don’t quite catch his words. 

“what?” you lazily ask. 

“why taehyun?” once again, you find yourself choking on the smoke. god, you’ve really got to get a grip and stop letting beomgyu surprise you — your lungs would thank you for it.

“w-what do you mean?” well, you always knew that beomgyu knows about your feelings for taehyun, but hearing him directly ask about them is enough to throw you off.

“i mean, why do you like him?” he asks, devoid of all the confidence he usually oozes. 

“what’s not to like?” you say offhandedly. if you cared enough to pay attention to his reaction, you’d see how he withers at your words. even more so when you continue.

“he’s really, really funny. plus, he’s handsome. not to mention smart and —” 

“so what? i’m all of those things,” beomgyu interrupts, irritation bitterly lacing every edge of his words. “and if you call him smart, anybody can be.” oh hell no. you’re so indignant at him calling taehyun stupid, you don’t even catch beomgyu’s childlike envy towards him, let alone why he feels it.

“just because his grades don’t compare to yours, doesn’t mean he’s stupid,” you argue.

“then what does it mean?” he asks with a roll of his eyes at your obvious bias for the other boy.

“it… it just means that he’s —” 

“a real genius. yeah, i’m sure you think so,” he snarks.

“what the hell is that supposed to mean?!” you snap, despite your better judgment to just let it roll off of your back. if he were talking about you, you may very well have done so, but this is taehyun he’s talking about. your taehyun. 

“it means he can’t compare to me,” he says, more as means to convince himself rather than convince you, but you’re so angry, you don’t even notice.

“and what makes you think you’re so goddamn special?” you ask, sarcasm absolutely dripping out of your voice. 

“i’m funnier, hotter, smarter, richer. how can he compare to me?” he snorts. if someone were to ask you why you feel so defensive at this moment, you would be unable to say why, but if you had to guess, you’d say it’s because taehyun is so good it’s impossible to see him any other way. your frustration builds up, hotter and hotter in your chest until you’re on the brink of exploding.

“you say that, but he will always be something you’re not,” you spit.

“and what, pray tell, might that be?” he cockily challenges.

“nice,” you say with conviction, and it may be cheesy, but you mean it. “he is really, really fucking nice and considerate. that’s why i like him.” well, that one went straight to his gut.

“i can be nice!” he exclaims. “i tried to be nice, but you just didn’t care! it was like i was invisible to you!” all you can do is stare, but he’s not finished. “you act like you’re some fucking angel, but i saw the way you looked at me like i’m some stupid, rich asshole who isn’t worth a damn.” 

finally, you realize that something is wrong. 

“beomgyu, why do you even care about what i think about you?” he doesn’t give a fuck about what you have to say in any other context, today’s example being only the latest in the litany of times where he’s shown you that exact sentiment. 

at this, he’s silent, which you truly did not anticipate in lieu of his tirade mere moments ago. you take a good look at the boy, and you finally register that the tips of his ears are a bright red under the fluorescence of the lone light shining next to the doorway. 

“i just… i always care about what you think,” he mumbles, face growing redder and redder under your scrutinizing stare as he breaks eye contact with you.

“you could’ve fooled me,” you snort. “you’re always undermining everything i say and do. it’s almost like you’re doing it on… purpose…” you trail off, puzzle pieces finally fitting together in a way you would never suspect. 

“beomgyu?” you ask.

“mm?” he murmurs, still refusing to make eye contact. 

“do you… do you like me?” and the question sounds so silly you can’t believe you even asked it. this guy fucking hates you, you’re sure of it, but you grow less and less sure of this sentiment with every moment he hesitates to answer.

“... yeah. yeah, i do. but so what? you don’t even care,” he mopes, and just like that, everything makes sense. his teasing, his contrarian nature, and his obnoxiousness are just part of his ruse. he’s just like a child begging for attention by acting out, but to what end? just so you’ll pay attention to him? well, he was on the money when he said you didn’t like him even when he tried to be kind, so maybe, in his own sick little way, he was right. 

but that doesn’t mean you don't feel completely blindsided by this revelation. 

“what the hell?” is all you can manage to say.

“shut up!” he demands with no real heat to it, just embarrassment. 

“i… i can’t believe your solution was to be an asshole,” you say incredulously. “if you had just been nice, or even just normal, i would have warmed up to you. i know i was being childish, but goddamn, you’re worse.” 

if he was blushing before, and he was, he’s absolutely blood red now. 

“i-it’s your fault for being so judgmental!” he sputters, but even you know he’s just grasping at straws. it all makes the worst kind of sense to you now, and you’re very much shocked at how oblivious you were mere moments ago.

“i can't believe this,” you whisper, bringing your hands up to your temples in an effort to straighten everything out in your muddled head. “you hate me.” 

“you’re so dramatic,” he huffs with a roll of his eyes, which would convincingly come across as disdainful, if only his words weren’t so shaky and unsure.

you take a good look at him now, and he can feel it. he’s a very handsome guy, and he knows it, but he can’t help but feel vulnerable. he clears his throat and straightens up his posture when he thinks that you may be comparing him to taehyun... you are not.

none of his actions escape you, which is a far cry from what usually happens, but now that you've discovered his true feelings, it’s almost impossible not to catch his tells; you even wonder how you missed them. his awkward handling of the situation is endearing, in a way. you like watching him squirm, which you realize must be the way he felt about you all those times he teased you. it just makes you wanna push him more.

you’re not exactly known for your impulsivity. in fact, you’re known for the exact opposite. you take things slowly, steadily. you plan every minute detail in consideration of every possible outcome, but as for right now? right now, as you sit and watch beomgyu pout, you just want to let go and do what you really want, and what you really want is to watch him break.

you grab his face with your hands and turn it towards you, and he scowls for just a moment before blinking his big, reddened eyes in curiosity at your unreadable gaze.

“w-what are you doing?” he asks, too exhilarated by your touch to think about batting you away.

this is a bad idea — a horrible one, even — but that does nothing to deter you. how can it when his skin on your palms makes it feel like there's pure electricity thrumming through your bones? fuck it, might as well.

you don’t realize it yourself, but you look incredibly focused as you pull him in, his lips meeting yours. you’d think with the shock he must feel that he’d be taken aback for a second, but beomgyu, as always,   does not abide by your rules. he immediately grabs your face and presses his lips even harder against yours. you’re surprised at how much heat is behind it — how much frustration.

it’s incredibly interesting to watch his reactions as you kiss him, which would be weird, but he’s far too engrossed in this newfound pleasure to notice your stare. his eyes are shut, but they tremble with every passing second, making his long eyelashes quiver. you never noticed how long they are before now. you chalk up the swiping of your tongue against his chapped lips to sheerly wanting to study his reaction, and oh man, it does not disappoint. he whines against your mouth, eyebrows furrowed like he’s pleading for something. you want to find out what that something is. cruelly, you take his bottom lip between your teeth and lightly bite. he whines even louder, his eyes fluttering open, and he pulls away and says his next words in a tinny voice.

“c-can i touch you?” he pants, forehead pressed against yours, lips cherry red.

“no,” you say with a smile against his mouth. he would whine again if he could, but he can’t quite do it at the moment, not when your hands have moved from his cheeks in order to explore the rest of him. you curiously run your fingers through his long, silky hair, and he can’t help but moan when you experimentally tug at it. it’s breathy and light, and you’re intrigued, to say the very least. 

you don’t have the most experience in the world when it comes to the, uh, matters between men and women, but you are a fast learner by nature, so it takes no time at all to figure out where he likes to be touched. his lips, obviously, and his hair. his ears, so flushed and pink and cute, must be particularly sensitive, and you test this hypothesis by dragging your teeth along his earlobe. he lets out a loud, broken moan when you do, and anyone else in the world would have been embarrassed by making such a noise, but not beomgyu. he’s so pretty and pliable underneath your touch, which feels so tantalizing that all shame escapes him.

“do you like that, beomie?” you whisper teasingly, employing a nickname you’ve heard from a few of his ex-flings, and another strangled cry leaves his pouty lips when he feels your breath touch his ear. 

“mhmm, i like it! like it so much, princess,” he babbles, eyes screwed shut as you trail your lips from his ear to his unblemished neck. 

“princess?” you can’t help but question. “where’d that come from?” 

“think about calling you that all the time,” he moans as you suck on a previously unmarred patch of skin on his neck. “think about you all the time.” 

“and what do you think, beomie?” you whisper encouragingly, as if he’s a stupid boy squirming under your thumb.

“th-think about how much i wanna fuck you,” he admits. “h-how much i want to fill you up, make you m-mine.” honest to god, your panties were already feeling a little sticky just from teasing him alone, but his words make your core heat up tenfold. you shift your legs while trying to make yourself more comfortable, but you fail miserably.

“you’re delusional,” you snort, as you pull away from him, but his lips try to chase yours before you lightly push him away.

“i’m not! i-i jus’ wanna make you feel good,” he slurs, and oh god, you simply can’t be saved.

“well, wanna make your delusions reality?” you can’t help but ask before you can think better of it, but when you see how his eyes light up in hope and pure, primal lust, you realize you don’t regret it.

-

the walk to his hotel room is silent, so unbearably silent that you can’t help but second-guess yourself. are you really gonna do this with beomgyu of all people? but it’s been so long since you’ve let go, who will it hurt just to have fun for once? maybe you, probably you, but who cares? it can't be any worse than it is now. besides, you're graduating soon. if things go as badly as you’re pretty sure they will, you’ll never have to see beomgyu again after the fact. plus, things really can’t seem to get any more embarrassing than the humiliation ritual you put yourself through every day that you spend pining after taehyun.

and so, you enter his hotel room, which is easily double the size of yours (sans a roommate, no less) with a look of determination. beomgyu completely misses it, though, as he shuts the door behind you and immediately tugs you towards his bed, quick to rekindle the atmosphere you two had on the rooftop. surprisingly, it’s not hard to do so when he’s back to kissing you so desperately it’s like you’re his lifeline.

he impatiently swipes his tongue across your lips, mirroring what you did earlier, silently asking for entry. you oblige. he groans at the feeling of your warm tongue brushing against his own, savoring the way you taste, which yes, does have notes of weed, but there’s something sweet in there, too. something he’s only ever fantasized about with his hand down his pants.

one of your hands is currently tangled in his hair, just the way he likes it, while the other one exploratorily finds its way down his lithe body. you’ve never done what you do next before, but he seems so incredibly sensitive, it feels like a matter of course to put your hand up his shirt and tweak one of his hardened nipples. he lets out a strangled cry, which only makes you certain that you’ve done the right thing. 

“is it good, beomie? is it everything you wanted it to be?” you tease. he nods like an idiot.

“y-yes, even better,” he moans. “feels s-so good.” 

in the dim lighting of his hotel room, you can see that he means it as the tent in his pants gets harder and harder to ignore. the poor thing is so wound up by your caresses that he may just cum untouched, anyway, but what fun would that be? so, before you can think too much about it, you palm him through his jeans. 

“ah!” he cries, eyebrows furrowed. you palm him again, rougher this time, and just like clockwork, he cries even louder.

“want me to keep going?” you ask, studying and soaking up every reaction of his. all he can do is nod.

he unzips his pants and he’s all too willing to help you slide them off of him, tossing them on the floor before hurriedly grabbing one of your hands to meet his barely clothed bulge. it’s big, because it’s beomgyu and of fucking course it is. as if he needed another reason to be conceited. 

it doesn’t seem like he’s very conceited, though, as he moans like a whore at you hooking your fingers under his waistband and tugging his boxers off of him. his cock is very obviously leaking, and it’s as bright red as his ears were earlier, completely flushed with beads of precum drooling off of it. there are angry veins running up the sides of it, which sounds gross, in theory, but you can’t help but feel like they make it even prettier. you gulp when you imagine how they’ll feel when they’re dragging in and out of your pussy.

“don’t stare!” he says, breaking you out of your reverie. honestly? he knows it’s pretty, just like every other part of him, but he feels incredibly scrutinized under your gaze. you don’t listen, still very much staring as you take your thumb and experimentally swipe it over his thick, reddened tip. then again. then again.

“s-stop teasing me, please,” he whimpers, but you’re so enamored with his reactions you can’t help yourself. you spit on your hand and grab the base of his cock, which is no small feat considering how thick it is, and you give it a harsh tug. he bites his bottom lip to try to stifle his moans as you start to jerk him off, applying pressure exactly where he needs it most, but he quickly gives up on being quiet when you bend over and lick his tip. he tastes salty, but not unbearably so, and in a way, he’s almost sweet. that could just be your imagination, though.

beomgyu is no longer trying to bite back his moans, but he's stuck in another dilemma: he can't seem to unscrew his eyes for long enough to fully appreciate the sight before him. one of your hands is gripping the muscle of his thigh as leverage while the other aids in squeezing and pulling the parts of him you can’t quite fit in your mouth. you’re not looking at him, which would normally be disappointing, but it’s impossible to be anything less than satisfied when you’re hollowing out your cheeks to suck on him even harder. you take your hand from his dick and ghost your fingers over his balls, and he has to push you off of him so he doesn’t blow his load right then and there.

“what’s wrong?” you ask, wiping some spit and precum off of your lips. he’s enchanted by the way your lips are swollen from sucking on him, so much so that he almost forgets to answer.

“‘m gonna c-cum,” he says shyly.

“and?” 

“i don’t want to yet. i wanna make you feel good, too,” he argues petulantly.

“oh? is that what you do in your dreams? you make me feel good? i’m surprised, i figured you’d like me to do all the work and —” 

“shut up!” he hisses, and you can’t help but laugh. 

“let me eat you out,” he offers, trying to distract you from his evident embarrassment. it’s tempting, very tempting, indeed, but you’re so hot and bothered that you kind of just want to get to the main event. especially since you just know it’ll feel good to finally have him inside of you. it’s been so long since you’ve been with somebody, after all. 

“no, thanks. do you have a condom?” you ask, ignoring his suggestion, and he’d be humiliated if only your question weren't so damn exciting.

“n-no…” he stammers. your face falls for a second before he rushes to get out his next words. “b-but i can pull out!” 

“sorry, this was fun and all, but i’m not letting you fuck me without protection.”

“please?” he begs. “i’m clean, i swear! i told you i’m more careful than you think. i really don’t sleep around that much, honestly,” he admits. 

“what?” you ask, genuinely bewildered before calling his bluff. “bullshit. i see you with a new girl all the fucking time. quit lying.” 

“i’m not! i promise — i promise — i don’t sleep around a lot. i only act like i do ‘cause of you!” 

“because of me?” and it actually makes sense when you think about it. he acts out, bullies you, and pretends he’s involved with a lot more girls than he actually is just to try to get you to look his way. oh man, what are you gonna do with him? 

“you’re so pathetic,” you sneer before hiking up your skirt and mounting him. 

“w-what are you —” 

“shut up before i change my mind,” you spit. and just like magic, his mouth is snapped shut.

you start by rubbing your clothed pussy against his bare cock. your slick has already ruined the fabric beyond salvation, so you don’t really mind ruining it some more. beomgyu is absolutely in awe at your actions, rutting against you feverishly. he’s greedy, if nothing else, so he impatiently moves your soaked panties to the side and tries to seek relief in your warm hole. you let him grab your hips as he tries to ease himself into you, but he’s stunned at the resistance he’s met with as he tries to push himself in. 

“s-so tight,” he groans as his fat cock breaches the tight rim of your pussy. the muscles contract as they stretch to accommodate his widened tip. 

you were right about how good you anticipated the feeling of his veins scraping against your insides would be, and you revel in the feeling as you sink down inch by scorching inch. beomgyu, on his end, looks absolutely devastated as you slowly take him in. his mouth is twisted open in a silent scream, and his eyes are watery, tears threatening to spill over at any moment. when your ass finally meets his hips, you can feel his length pulsating all the way up to your cervix. it’s a snug fit, too, and it takes everything in him not to hump you like a fucking dog. 

slowly, you raise yourself up again, almost completely off of him, before slamming yourself back down. then again. then again. he whimpers when you do it, grabbing your hips to help steady you as you ride him for everything that he’s worth. he’s enraptured as your breasts bounce with each movement, and he can’t help himself now — he begins to thrust into you wildly, matching your rhythm and making you cry out. if you were in your right state of mind, you’d feel sorry for the poor souls who are on the same floor as him. 

“pussy so f-fucking good,” he grunts as he feels you squeezing around him, and you’re about to smirk before he pushes you onto the bed then turns you on your side so you’re facing away from him. he tries to slide back into your needy cunt, but the new position makes you feel even tighter. still, with the combination of his slick and yours, he’s able to push himself in again before rutting into you. he presses one of his big hands against your stomach while the other one hastily grabs one of your tits, and suddenly he's back to fucking you like a wild animal. 

you've never in your life felt so wanted, so needed, but beomgyu needs you in a way so carnal it makes you feel even more turned on. he nips your ear, mimicking your actions from earlier, and begs for your praise. 

“a-are you feeling good? you’re feeling good, right?” he chokes out as he hits a particularly deep part of your pussy. 

“so good, beomie,” you moan. “you’re fucking me so good.” those words would normally never leave your lips, but he seems desperate for your validation, and you know he’s too far gone to mock you.

“oh god, this is w-what i dreamed about,” he babbles as he takes the hand that was pressing on your stomach and uses it to massage your clit, earning a strangled scream from you. “th-this is what i’ve always wanted.” and if you could see his face, you’d notice how his eyes roll backwards in sheer ecstasy. 

“i’m gonna cum!” you cry, all self-restraint gone.

“m-me too, princess,” he moans. “c-can i cum inside?” it’s a pipe dream if he’s ever had one, and you can believe that he’s had one, but your response floors him.

“yes, yes, yes! do it inside, i want it!” and that’s enough. he spits out a curse as he hammers himself into you, making you almost sob as you come undone with him inside of you. the feeling of your pussy sucking him in even more as it wildly contracts around him pulls him over the edge, so he paints your walls with his seed and fucks you through both of your highs. 

he stays there until he goes soft, slowly pulling out and watching in awe as the cum spills out of your hole. he pulls you flush against his body and sighs as he tenderly fixes up your hair. 

“i really, really like you,” he earnestly whispers into your hair. 

“i —” 

“it’s okay if you don’t like me yet,” he interrupts. “i can wait.” you’re glad you’re not facing him, because you actually feel a little awkward at his sincere words, but you can’t deny that it makes your heart flutter to hear them.

“okay,” you say.

“okay?” he asks, just to be sure he heard you correctly.

“yes, i-it’s okay. you can wait.” he’s so excited that he throws himself on top of you and turns you to face him, lips greedily meeting yours, putting every ounce of yearning into the kiss. 

honestly? with the way things are going right now, he probably won’t have to wait very long at all. 

notes pt. 2: yeah... i'm so sorry that this is bad i'm just used to writing angst angst angst and this def veered more into cute territory but whatever just don't bully me

permanent taglist: @my313 @superbbananananana @lonelybutterflytae @cherrycolaberry @midwinterblizzard @everythingvirgoes @sooberryworld @20-cms @inkigayocamman @hyueika @boba-beom @vicurious28 @blossommi @lickingan0rchid @katsukis1wife @binniebakery @notevenheretbh1 @shymexican @milkandoranges @that1sadgrl @archoive @paegesoobin @buttercreamerie @ifwtxt @softesyoongi @serenityism00

mad about you taglist: @m00gyu @bambammtori @yelsuki @denleave1088 @hyewka

join my taglist here!

[gnomewithalaptop]

Okay, so what's interesting to me with Absolute DC is it seems like so far it's been turning a lot of traditional relationships on their heads, with some of the Trifecta's greatest allies transformed into enemies and vice versa. This principle is probably best illustrated in Absolute Batman (re: the Gotham Rogues gallery as Bruce's childhood friends and Alfred the MI6 agent)

Absolute Batman #1, Absolute Batman #3

However, Absolute Superman's Lois Lane also deserves a shout out

Absolute Superman #1

Now, what's even more interesting to me is that I feel like Absolute Wonder Woman may be building up to a similar role reversal with Steve Trevor. We've had several role reversals when it comes to classic Wonder Woman enemies, namely Circe, who in the Absolute Universe is a mother-figure for Diana, and Cheetah/Barbara Minerva, who might be gearing up to be a love interest based on how she's been presented so far

Absolute Wonder Woman #1, Absolute Wonder Woman #3

What we haven't gotten are any traditional allies in a quasi-antagonistic role like we've gotten in Absolute Superman and Batman. The only real traditional ally that's been introduced so far is Steve Trevor (who, interestingly enough, seems to have a pretty platonic friendship with Diana so far, which might lend credence to my wondercheetah theory)

Absolute Wonder Woman #3

Absolute Barbara herself seems to be emulating her most updated origin so far (i.e. Rebirth) -- where she's an archaeologist/academic who's dedicated her career to proving the existence of the Amazons and eventually forms a friendship with Diana

Wonder Woman (2016) #8, Absolute Wonder Woman #3

In the mainstream DC universe, Barbara Ann Minerva and Diana remain good friends until a villain distracts Diana long enough to change Barbara Ann until the Cheetah. Diana promised she would find her, but with Barbara Ann's only means of contacting her nullifed without her knowledge, Diana fails to arrive in time. It's only then that Barbara Ann, feeling abandoned and betrayed, shifts from an ally and friend to one of Wonder Woman's rogues

Wonder Woman (2016) #18

This is the twist modern comics audiences would normally expect in a mainstream universe comic. But, as we've already established, in the Absolute Universe, villains are allies and allies are enemies. So if Absolute Wonder Woman follows the pattern we've been seeing so far and subverts our expectations, I think it's pretty likely that it'll actually be Steve, and not Barbara, who ends up turning against Diana and becoming a villain. Which, I'm certain, would be absolutely devastating to her, considering she gave up her dominant arm for him

Of course, I could just be blowing smoke here. After, all it's not like every major character in Absolute DC has switched roles -- Brainiac and Joker are still acting in their original antagonistic function, and it's not like Martha Kent or Jim Gordon have suddenly turned evil. The "reversed ally" trope could always be fulfilled by another of Diana's allies that just hasn't been introduced yet (Donna Troy or Hippolyta, for instance, or maybe even the Amazons as a whole, since they've really been playing up the importance of their disappearance from the beginning). But I do think Villain!Steve Trevor is a possibility I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for as the series progresses

[warisaracket777]

𝙖 𝙘𝙚𝙧𝙩𝙖𝙞𝙣 𝙧𝙤𝙢𝙖𝙣𝙘𝙚

Ch. 1: 𝐟𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐦

❣ yoongi x f!reader ❣ musicteacher!yoongi x englishteacher!reader; high school teacher au; rivals 2 lovers ❣ cw: crack, slight angst, eventual smut; american public school system (yes, this is a cw); eventual smut ❣ MDNI ❣ Word Count: 4.6 k ❣ Chapter 1 Summary: Kicking off the new school year with several petty spats, the halls of Bangtan High School echo with the insults and bickering between two otherwise very respectable teachers. You think you might str*ngle Min Yoongi before fall term ends.

❣ Author's Note(s): → I love all my public school teachers, can’t wait to be one of y’all.

༄˖°.☕️.ೃ࿔📚*:･ᝰ.📓🗒ˎˊ˗

early september 

“Why is it that every time there is a problem, it’s always you two chucklefucks?” Vice Principal Kim Seokjin reprimands from behind his desk. It was hard for you to take him seriously. 

Well, it should be hard for anyone to take him seriously when his daily uniform consisted of a bow tie and a sweater vest. 

“Way to fuckin’ loud, dude, turn it down,” Min Yoongi groans from his spot on the armchair facing Seokjin’s desk. “It’s not even 8:00 am.” His lips formed a small ‘o,’ blowing the steam from his coffee before taking a flinchy sip. 

He looked uncouth, dress shirt unironed and hair unkempt, earrings glinting at you as it swung under the fluorescents. He wore his glasses today — that was new, too. You note the blue of his wrinkly shirt. You were fuming, hoping that he could feel the daggers you were staring straight into his skin.

“It is week one of the semester, Mr. Min,” Seokjin raps his ruler against his desk. Each tap of the wood deepened Yoongi’s winces as he rubbed his temple. “What seems to be the problem?” The sound of Yoongi’s obnoxious sipping is grating on your nerves. You huff, at the both of them, too irritated to sit in the chair next to Yoongi.

“HE —“ you point a manicured finger straight at the criminal, “stole my reservation for the library on the shared faculty calendar!” 

Yoongi just rolls his eyes.

“Everyone knows it’s not permanent if it’s written in pencil,” he shrugs.

“I have been here for four years now and I’ve never heard that rule,” you seethe. “Plus, it’s not written down anywhere in the employment rule book and contract we signed. I checked.”

Yoongi snorts.

“You hear that, Jin? She checked. Back me up here,” he says, nonchalant. Jin, the shrill little worm, gives you a sheepish shrug, conceding to the criminal. (“It’s Mr. Kim during school hours,” he hisses at Yoongi quietly.)

“It is my understanding that the shared calendar must be filled out in pen to be considered official and permanent.”

“See, Ms. LN?” Yoongi smugly looks up at you through his glasses. “It needs to be reserved in ink or else it’s not permanent.” His eyes, way too bright and gleeful. 

“What if I stabbed you with this pencil, huh Mr. Min? Do you think the scar would be permanent?” You address him formally in an exaggerated, sugary pitch. 

“Yah! Ms. LN. There will be NO stabbing in my office.” Seokjin intervenes, slapping the ruler on his desk again. “Do not make me bring Principal Kim into this.” You had to laugh at that threat. 

“Please, Namjoon isn’t going to do shit,” Yoongi echoes your thoughts. 

“So now what? Are we just operating by unofficial rules now?” You snap at both of the men in the room, frustration licking up your throat. “How is this fair to me?”

“Can’t you just reserve another week?” Yoongi asks you, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. And you’re absolutely incensed.

“It is the principle of the damn thing. You should’ve had the courtesy to ask me before you erased my reservation.” Your tone is accusatory, and you’re determined to prevent any wavering, any weakness, from leaking through to the surface. Truth be told, it wasn’t a big deal for you to shift your lesson plans by a week, you didn’t need that particular reservation date. But the library had the only projector in the school, and you had promised a viewing of Romeo + Juliet for your students at the end of the month after they’d read through the play in class. Namjoon and Seokjin, no matter how hard you lobbied them, steadfastly maintained that there simply wasn’t enough money in the annual budget to purchase more projection screens for the classrooms. It felt like half of your job was spent in front of Seokjin’s desk, trying to bully him into putting more money into resources for your students.

“What’s done is done,” Seokjin interjects. You thought him a clown. “Next time, Ms. LN, just write your reservation in pen. Problem solved.” He looks happy with himself.

It takes everything you have not to scream at the both of them. Not this early in the year. Doubtless there will be a more lively confrontation the next time the likes of Min Yoongi decides to push one too many of your buttons. So you take a deep breath. Yoongi looks up at you, eyebrow arched in teasing curiosity.

One.

Two.

Three.

Release breath. 

“Fine.” You grit your teeth. 

“Hey, YN?” Yoongi interrupts the awkward silence.

“What?” You’re practically barking with rage.

“Unclench,” Yoongi says, as if he had the authority to command you. You think you feel the rage forcing a twitch in your eye, right under the waterline. Seokjin fails at suppressing his snort. You take another 3-second deep breath.

Chin held high in promise, eyes narrowing; your expression is murderous.  

“One day, we will have an HR rep who actually cares about what goes on in this place.” You lace as much venom as you can into your threat, all smiles and simpering. 

The two men just stare at you, wide-eyed and unsure of what to make of your malice. “And on that day, I will dance upon both of your graves.”

You huff, tighten your cardigan around you, and march out of the office, making sure to slam the door on your way out. Satisfaction from snatching the last word for yourself provides brief respite as you make your way to your classroom.

✎

By 8:30 am, your homeroom students had settled into an excitable chatter, with the morning energy only present in young classmates who had spent three long summer months apart. A few kids scattered themselves in your reading corner, cordoned off by bookshelves and a secondhand loveseat you had haggled away one of the pearl-clutching monsters on the PTA. 

Months spent scrimping and saving for secondhand furniture, used books, and a dinky little speaker that eked out soft classical music throughout the day. In the corner stood a few drawers of mini personal hygiene products and extra school supplies, paid for out of your own pocket (as was the case with the majority of the teachers in this school district) on your own meager salary. You avoided the overhead fluorescents like the plague, opting for the yellow warmth of fairy lights and some antique Tiffany lamps you’d snagged at an estate sale. And despite the broken desks, the bucket catching water from the leaking ceiling, you had made a sanctuary for you students out of your classroom. 

By 8:45 the clang of the bell signals the official start of the school day.

“Alright, kiddos. Into your seats and settle down for morning announcements, please.” You sip your mug of tea and pull your cardigan tight around you; your classroom was always so cold despite the countless times you’d put in a service request to Hoseok the janitor. You watch your kids make their way to their assigned desks, basketball shoes scuttling on linoleum, backpacks dwarfing their figures, you bask in your morning routine. “Remember, legally, we cannot make you stand to say the pledge,” you waggle your eyebrows at your students with mischief, jokingly sneering at the striped flag dangling next to the door of your classroom. A gaggle of giggles breaks out just as the intercom system beeps and Seokjin’s voice comes over the speakers, all static and haughtiness.

“Good morning, Bangtan High!” The screech of the microphone feedback and a few taps (which only exacerbated the screeching) disturbed the sacred calm of your room. “Testing, test— Jimin! Stop messing with my microphone!” More feedback screeching. “No I’m not spitting on the mic, now fix the feedback or you’re fired.” A few of your kids are giggling, hands over their ears. You just roll your eyes as you write the date and the day’s lesson objectives on the chalkboard.

“Okay, let’s try this again. Good morning, Bangtan High! This is Vice Principal Kim,” his screeching replaces the microphone feedback, only slightly less grating to the ear. You listen as he runs through the announcements for the day — slop for lunch (gruel for vegetarians), applications for hall monitors, varsity soccer tryouts to meet in the fields behind the gymnasium, the moronic cult-like recitation of the pledge of allegiance — you were grateful for the morning routine you had, even if your boss was incompetent. And you were excited about your assignments for this year.

“And finally, there will be a mandatory faculty meeting today at 4:00 pm in the lounge. Light refreshments will be provided.” You groan internally, just now remembering that you had to attend that god forsaken meeting. “This is Veep Kim, signing off! Go Scouts!” 

“Ms. LN, does this mean that today’s debate team meeting will be canceled?” Irene asks. By far, one of your favorite students, and captain of the debate team that you coached as required by your contract.

“Yeah, unfortunately, kiddo. Can you send out a text letting the rest of the team know? We’ll just meet next week.” 

“Yes, ma’am,” Irene responds.

“Alright, 9:00 am!” You look at your reliable old Casio, ready to start your lesson. “Starting next week, we will be reading Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet. In each of your desks, I have placed a copy — if yours is damaged or dirty, please bring it to our librarian Mr. Kim Taehyung and he will get you another copy. I will be assigning roles based on preference.”

“Oh, Mr. Kim is the hot new librarian,” you hear another student next to Irene whisper, all girlish gossip and hushed tones. You fight to keep a hold on your chuckle. 

“Is there a problem Wendy?” You look at her, brows raised with authority, even though the situation was amusing. 

“No,” her cheeks turn pink. “Sorry Miss LN,” she says sheepishly.

“I’ll just pretend I didn’t hear any of that,” you tease her before resuming focus. “Back to business. Extra credit will be awarded to the two of you who will read for Romeo and Juliet. Please submit your preferences to me by email before Sunday night. If you don’t submit your name, I will assign roles randomly until we have each role casted.” You do your cheesy little snap and finger guns, saying “Capisce?” with a bright smile on your face.

The students just groan and repeat “Capisce,” back at you.

It was your thing.

✎

By 2:00 pm, Min Yoongi’s back was starting to hurt from having to tune thirty instruments every hour. Violins with bows missing one too many hairs, guitars with broken tuning pegs, and a roomful of pubescent monsters hyped up on Monster energy drinks and sugar — dreams do come true. But that didn’t mean that he didn’t love his job. Sure, the music program was up for the chopping block every year, and sure, he didn’t have the budget he needed to truly teach in the way he wanted; but these snot-nosed little rascals were the light of Yoongi’s life. 

In every sense except financial, stability was what he needed; teaching gave him what producing never could. For Yoongi, there was integrity in teaching, and it provided him with immense relief after he quit his cushy producing job at Big Hit. Day in and day out of making formulaic pop music — he had hardened into a soulless robot. And by the time that AI had become incorporated into the production process, Yoongi found himself completely bereft. Useless. Meaningless. His life’s work, thrown into an industry that traded integrity for streaming numbers. 

Now, after six years at Bangtan High, he couldn’t imagine doing anything else. He loved it. The screechy, off-tune concerts, the 7:00 am mornings, even fighting with you — all of it. He loved all of it, even if he didn’t get by unscathed; a few mistakes and a handful of regrets still nagged at him on his worst days. But today wasn’t one of those days. 

Yoongi tapped his conductor’s baton on the music stand, commanding attention from his Advanced Orchestra students. This was always his favorite class of the day — the last class, and all were students who loved Orchestra I enough to come back. He didn’t have to start from scratch with these kids. 

“As you all know,” he starts after clearing his throat, “the Winter Concert will take place the weekend before the holiday break, and Orchestras I and II will be performing. Please make sure to tell your parents ahead of t—” 

“Mr. Min,” Irene raises her hand, waving it in the air with fervor. First chair violin, precocious but disciplined. Yoongi nods at her, his glasses flopping down his nose. He thinks he’ll start wearing these more often.

“We actually have a debate competition the last weekend before winter break starts,” Irene states matter-of-factly, “and frankly, it’s an important one.”

“Who’s ‘we’?” he asks softly, confusion wrinkling his features. He swore that there weren’t any bookings on the shared calendar for that weekend when he checked this morning. 

“Me, Irene, Joy, Yeri, and Seulgi,” Wendy chimes in loudly, and it only adds to Yoongi’s annoyance.

“That’s… just not possible,” he mumbles, “but thank you for letting me know. I’ll figure this out with Miss LN.” It takes all of his effort not to grit his teeth in frustration. His best performers, whisked away by you in revenge? Not going to happen. “We’ll discuss it later,” he adds curtly.

“As I was saying,” Yoongi continues, much more tersely than before, “Tell your parents ahead of time and let me know if you cannot participate so I can dole out the proper roles to the beginner Orchestra…”

By the time he’s finished his classes, cleaned up his room, and disinfected each desk and chair with a sanitizing cloth, Yoongi’s ready for his afternoon coffee. As he walks into the faculty lounge, to his annoyance, he sees you standing next to the kettle, stirring honey into your mug of tea. He checks the shared faculty calendar by the entrance, and sure enough, you reserved nearly every campus facility available for the week before winter break. With your back turned away from him, Yoongi takes a moment to look at you before taking up the space next to you at the counter.  Another sparkle of irritation burbles in his chest, compelling him to move forward. 

“Well, well, well,” he keeps his voice curt, “if it isn’t the thief.” He keeps his eyes trained on his coffee. 

You spill a little of your tea, letting out a squeak of surprise as the tea scalds your hand. “Fuck, ow—”

Yoongi immediately regrets his attempt at taunting you as he watches you hiss in pain. “Shit, I’m sorry,” he panics, promptly grabbing you by the wrist and shoving your hand under the tap. He turns the knob for cold water on full blast, surprised that you let him guide you like that.

“Thief?” you spit at him angrily. “You’re the one who stole my reservation for the library this morning.” Yoongi frowns as the spot on your hand becomes an angrier red by the second. You snatch it away from his grip. “And don’t touch me.” 

“The last weekend before Winter break has always been reserved for the Winter Concert, you know this,” Yoongi says, trying to keep a lid on so he wouldn’t explode with impatience. 

“Give me back my library reservation and I’ll give you back the Winter Concert weekend,” you state with no emotion in your face.

“You’re a terrorist,” Yoongi fires back as he opens the freezer, picking out a handful of ice and throwing it into a sandwich bag. “And no, I can’t. I don’t negotiate with terrorists and I need the library that day. It has the only projector on campus and I need it to show a movie.” He offers the makeshift ice pack to you, wrapped in flimsy paper towels because the school’s budget cuts didn’t prioritize usable hygiene and cleaning products.

“For what? You teach music! I’ve seen your Winter Concerts, Min Yoongi, and it seems like you need to work on making sure your kids aren’t tone deaf before they watch Stomp Out Loud for the 800th time in their musical education.” You accept the ice pack anyway, gingerly placing it on the angry red burn on your hand.

“I show Stomp one fucking time. One time, and now I never hear the end of it from you,” he sighs in exasperation. “And why can’t you just move your reservation to a different date? I need that week, I have an appointment.” 

“Because I planned my syllabus meticulously and that specific week was meant to be the end of my Romeo & Juliet unit. I need the projector.” You couldn’t keep the agitation out of your demeanor: you hated deviating from your syllabus, from your plans. Now everything needed to be shifted and it would mess with your schedule for the rest of the semester unless you spent another three hours figuring out how to restructure everything. You’ll keep Yoongi’s Winter Concert hostage, if not just to torture him a little bit.

“Well, move your syllabus around,” Yoongi replies, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. He moves in sync with you, the two of you mired in your bickering as the faculty lounge conference table starts filling up with your colleagues.

“Your arrogance truly knows no bounds,” you snarl. “Move your appointment around!”

And to your irritation, he just smirks as he plays with one of his earrings. “Over my dead body, sweetheart,” he almost coos at you as he exposes his gummy smile.

Taehyung slides into the seat next to you, disrupting your bickering. Yoongi’s face visibly hardens when you turn your attention toward the new librarian. You beam at him, as if sunshine came out of his ass. 

“Long time no see,” Taehyung says to you, a hint of amusement shared between the two of you. 

“Tae — just the person I needed to see,” you lean closer to him and whisper something Yoongi can’t hear, so he just sips his coffee with a cranky look on his face.

“What happened to your hand, babe?” Taehyung’s concerned tone grates on Yoongi’s nerves. Babe? Wasn’t there some kind of rule against fraternizing with your colleagues?

“Nothing, just spilled boiling water on myself,” you respond, brushing it off like it was no big deal.

Yoongi just sinks down further in his seat.

“I call this meeting to order,” Jin’s screeching breaks through your chattering with Taehyung. Thank god, Yoongi thinks to himself, side eyeing you and Taehyung.

“Principal Kim sends his apologies, he couldn’t be here today so I’ve been sent in his stead,” Jin clears his throat and adjusts his detestable bowtie before reading off the list of notes Namjoon had sent him.

…

You sip your tea and ignore Yoongi for the rest of the meeting, diligently taking notes and contributing whenever necessary. 

“And finally, this is a reminder that all faculty are responsible for volunteering at or chaperoning at least two formal school events each semester,” Jin looks pointedly around the room when the faculty erupt in groans of annoyance. He holds up a clipboard, evidently pleased with his ability to irritate everyone with his overenthusiastic attitude, “You may sign up here — Miss LN, Mr. Min, please stay for a few minutes. I would like to speak with the both of you.”

This better be an apology for the calendar mishap, you grumble to yourself as you check your watch. Fine. Whatever. You look over at Yoongi, who seems just as displeased as you.

“Miss LN, a new teaching assistant will be shadowing you tomorrow,” Jin says to you, opening his laptop. You narrow your eyes, mind flashing through Jin’s prolific history of assigning you tasks that Principal Namjoon had actually assigned to him.

“Why me?” you ask suspiciously. “He’s looking to teach English lit,” Jin replies, clicking around on his laptop. 

“There are four other teachers in the English department, why not ask them? They have seniority over me,” you argue back, hesitant about piling more onto your list of responsibilities.  In the reflection of the window behind him, you could see his mouse moving around playing cards on a deep green screen. I need a raise, you groan internally, complete self-loathing in that moment for not selling out your intellect and going into business or finance after college. 

“Stop playing solitaire and pay attention!” you slap your palm down on the conference. Jin looks up at you with slight fear.

“Is there any reason why I need to be here?” Yoongi interjects.

“Shut it—”

“Yes.”

Both you and Jin look at Yoongi.

Jin clears his throat, and closes out of the solitaire window. “His name is Jeon Jungkook, and I’m assigning him to you because you have the least experience with shadows and you ought to learn how to manage one.” He smiles at you innocently, “It’s not like I don’t care about your professional development, you know. Now. Moving onto the ruckus this morning.” Jin pushes his glasses further up his nose bridge and tightens his ridiculous bowtie once again.

“I am assigning you two as heads of the Autumn Festival planning committee,” he announces. 

The fucking gall on this man. 

“What?” Yoongi balks as you stare, confounded.

“Why? Are you punishing me?” you nearly scream.

“Don’t make me call the union,” Yoongi threatens. And for once, you’re with him.

The bastard just smiles at you and Yoongi from across the conference table. You have half a mind to throw his $9 latte straight in his face, multimillion dollar lawsuit be damned.

“Just listen to me, okay?” Jin asks, raising his eyebrows as if he was an adult trying to resolve an issue between two obdurate toddlers. Neither you nor Yoongi respond, so he continues, despite the murderous glares on both of your faces.

“I need you two to get over whatever the fuck is going on. My faculty is a team, and I can’t have two essential members of my team going at each other’s throats. In the past four years, I have received exactly 22 complaints from either your colleagues or your students about aggressive behavior from the both of you,” Jin explains, chipper as always. “So, you two will be working together with the PTA to put on the annual Autumn Festival.” He smiles at his ingenuity.

“This is god punishing me for my sins, huh?” You look up at the ceiling dramatically, mentally cursing your luck. 

“You can’t be serious,” Yoongi grumbles, sinking into his seat and sighing with frustration. “You’ve already put me in charge of the Winter Concert, Jin.”

“Mr. Kim…” you chime in too, closing your eyes and taking a deep breath — you will yourself not to quit right then and there. “I am already coaching the debate team and my weekends are spent taking them to competitions. I can’t take on any more responsibilities,” you try to reason with him.

“As you both know, the Autumn Festival is our largest fundraiser of the year,” your boss continues, disregarding the protests coming from you and Yoongi. “If you manage to pull this off without a hitch — and I mean it,” Jin points at the both of you with a long, crooked finger, evidently enjoying his little power trip, “If there are no complaints about the two of you from the students or the faculty from now until the Autumn Festival, I’ll give the Music and English departments 25% of the funds each, as long as you can rake in over $10,000.” That gets the both of you to shut up. The offer stuns both you and Yoongi into your own quiet internal deliberations. The English department definitely needed that money. You could finally take your students to the Shakespeare Library. Maybe a few more copies of course textbooks. 

“Of course, you’ll both be excused from one of the mandatory two-event faculty service requirements,” Jin adds.

After several awkwards beats, Yoongi narrows his eyes at Jin and decides to be the first to break the silence.

“Thirty percent,” he deadpans. You look over at him in the seat next to you, his long fingers interlaced behind his head. You could see the bulge of his muscles through his shirt when he sat in that position.

“And you’ll excuse us from both of the events for our service requirement,” you add to Yoongi’s demand.

“You drive a hard barg—,” 

“I’m not done,” you interrupt your boss, bringing your hand up to stop him in his tracks. “You will also buy another projector or TV that will be used exclusively by the English department,” you demand. “I’m tired of fighting with this lunkhead for resources,” you nod over to Yoongi.

“Excuse me? Lunkhead?” Yoongi cries indignantly. You just smirk at him, silently waiting for Seokjin’s response with an expectant look on your face.

Jin narrows his eyes, looking back and forth between you and Yoongi. “Fine,” he acquiesces. “I agree to your terms. But you two will be on your best behavior this semester or Principal Kim will hear about this.” 

You sink back into your chair, a sigh escaping you in aggravation. “Fine,” you huff, facial expression disgruntled at the realization that you’d be spending more time than you’d like with the world’s biggest thorn in your side…

Jin looks at Yoongi, raising an eyebrow when he doesn’t confirm his cooperation like you did.

“Fine,” Yoongi pushes his glasses up his nose bridge and shows his palms in surrender, “I’ll do it. Just don’t blame me when this blows up in your face, Jin.”

You couldn’t have agreed more.

✎

The next day passes by like most days, except for the new teaching assistant trailing behind you every second of every hour, overly eager to impress. He arrived half an hour before homeroom started, two disposable cups in hand like a nervous intern on his first day of work. 

“Miss LN,” he had introduced himself in a sheepish, polite manner, “My name is Jungkook. I’m your new teaching assistant.”

“Hi,” you smile at him warmly as you unlock the door to your classroom. “Come on in,” you nod him toward the room while kicking down the door stop. Jungkook offers you one of the drinks he had in hand.

“Herbal tea,” he said, “Yoongi said you drink herbal tea.”

You raise an eyebrow at him questioningly, and maybe something in your face betrays your disgust at this information because Jungkook starts prattling.

“I can get you something else if you like, Miss—”

“It’s fine,” you cut him off. Uninterested in thinking about Yoongi anymore than you needed to. Instead, you just nod, taking the cup from Jungkook’s hand. “I’ll give you a tour of the room and show you where you can put down your stuff.”

You run through your classroom with your new TA. 

“Students can borrow as many books as they want, as long as they return them within two weeks,” you start listing off your rules on your fingers as the two of you get to your desk in the front of the room. Jungkook is scrambling to write down every word you were saying, determined tongue sticking out as his pen tore across his notepad. 

“Your desk is back there,” you nod toward the cozy set up you made for Jungkook, complete with his own mug that said ‘#1 TA.’

“It is a strict rule in the faculty lounge that you use your own mug. Do not touch anyone else’s mug, and keep your shit clean if you’re going to use the storage available in the faculty lounge kitchen,” you continue. 

“Yes, ma’am, Miss LN.” You stare at the kid, eager as a puppy to impress any and every human within its vicinity.

“Two more things, and I want you to just listen,” you instruct Jungkook. He dutifully puts away his notepad.

“One, you can call me YN,” you raise your eyes at him, waiting for affirmation from him. 

“Got it,” he nods.

“And second, you need to relax. This is public school, not the military.”

[another-goblin]

Some disjointed thoughts I have about this guy and related matters (warning—it's a lot)

I just think he's neat.

A little disclaimer: I love supporting my interpretations with screenshots, but there would be too many of these. This thing is big enough already. Just know that nearly every little bizarre thing is taken from the game. I didn't have to invent anything; he's eccentric enough as he is.

And there were some juicy things I didn't manage to screenshot, like Merlin commenting something like "Wow you guys are close huh" while running around having to listen to Indris and Ravion bicker. Merlin knows what's going on.

■

So what's the most likely first surface level impression of Ravion?

He's the Queen's only son, so basically an ultimate nepo baby. He wears a mask, he's feminine, has strange mannerisms, and is kind of gay-coded. Knowing how this kind of stereotype has been traditionally used, he has to be a villain.

Look at the Exarchs:

Velara is the deranged fanatic of the three.

Thador is the quiet, duty-bound military type.

And Ravion has to be the Queen's good-for-nothing, slimy son, trying to seduce Indris into being evil too, right?

■

Surprisingly, not even close. If you look at his actions, he seems like a decent guy. The thing is, he seems to put a lot of conscious effort into concealing this fact.

■

For every good thing he does, he's ready with an alternative motive. And vice versa, for every questionable thing he does, there is probably a good reason for it. For example:

The very first time we see him, he disagrees with Velara, Thador, and the Queen on whether or not we should be killed. (I like this little cutscene because it shows that when it comes to important decisions, his powers are limited. The other two Exarchs will overvote him, and the Queen's word is the law anyway. So he has to act very carefully inside the limitations of his position.) But then he immediately tells Velara that he'll change his vote if she changes hers, pretending that he only did it out of contrarianism.

He only helped us break Indris from the palace in exchange for some information, and totally not because he cares for Indris and what he represents for Salthorin. But don't tell me Indris wouldn't have told him everything anyway.

He abdicated and made Indris the new leader. But only because he's lazy and hates responsibility.

He's so shallow that he only made Indris a captain because he's good-looking. But also because he's capable and can shoulder some of Ravion's responsibilities. But also because he's honest and noble in spirit and principled, and he's "the only light," yada-yada, and thus represents the only hope for Salthorin's future. But also, according to Xera, Ravion actually attempted to get commoners into the guard for quite some time, trying to make the trials easier and having priests present to provide participants with medical help and so on, and Indris just happened to be the first who succeeded.

He selfishly wasted our and Indris' valuable time in the middle of a crisis to help him find info on his dad, as if it's a good time for that. Or maybe he was making sure Indris wouldn't be threatened by an unexpected rival for the throne (aka his nonexistent dad).

(when talking to Thador trying to clear the way for us to rescue Indris) Whoops, he's just a silly prince and absolutely worthless as a leader, and his people don't respect him, but they love Indris, so better let Indris go, right? (and who gave Indris this opportunity to rise in the eyes of his peers to begin with?)

Why did he send Indris away to the surface? A lot of reasons, probably. How about "to save him from being assassinated"? (it's from one of his Heart-to-Heart dialogues )

And when he got Indris drunk that one time? (…nevermind, he was just being a little shit.)

So yeah, if it happened once or twice, I could have overlooked it. But every time? He's not beating the good guy allegations. I know what you are!

(I feel that some players got fooled by this too. But what else is new.)

And the best thing is, all these alternative motives are also probably true.

■

And you know things aren't going well when he drops any pretense and openly begs Velara not to execute a crowd of innocent commoners.

■

What if his mask is a metaphor for this?

The way he (reportedly) hides this under his mask:

The same way he seemingly hides a decent, caring person under his eccentric mannerisms and several layers of contradictory motivations.

■

But this actually takes a lot of effort! Imagine doing good things left and right, and your closest people's (Indris and Xera) only reaction is "WTF is wrong with them?" (although actually I think Xera understands him well. And Indris probably does too)

■

I just realized that the woman in all of their character introduction cards is probably the Queen before she changed. That's the face from her statue. And speaking of symbolism, both Velara and Thador, her most trusted allies, wear the same kind of circlet the Queen did. Ravion doesn't.

■

But speaking of the Otivia debacle. It absolutely was his attempt at revenge for having to spend every guard party somewhere in a corner hugged tight by Indris, to prevent him from hugging the wrong person and getting kicked out from the guards.

But also Otivia and Xera are right! What do you mean an "exclusive scoop"? How are you so familiar with the strength of his hugs?

Just complain about how inexperienced Indris is at kissing, or rate his performance in bed next time and act surprised when it backfires too.

■

Didn't his mom have a "your dad went to get some Divine Dew and never returned" talk with him?

Can you imagine a more bizarre list of possible dads:

"Please not Thador" (kind of understandable)

"Some dwarf" (I mean, why not. look at these dwarves)

He was immaculately conceived with the help of the holy spirit corrupted magic of the unborn dragons, to take on his mother's sins. So basically Jesus.

And that apparently was the right answer. Yeah it's a reasonable thing to suspect. Happens all the time.

■

Why is he the only one who doesn't have a portrait here (This season's Heart-to-Heart)?

■

Certified Drama Queen.

■

Some important research I did:

Friendly reminder that Indris is built like a tank, especially in comparison to Ravioli noodle here.

As a connoisseur of size difference, I approve.

If this man decides to drunkenly hug you, you'll stay hugged until he sobers up.

■

Btw I saw somebody call Indris a twink. Come on, he's 3 twinks standing shoulder-to-shoulder in a trench coat!

But if Zanie can call Ravion a himbo, then why not call Indris a twink, I guess.

■

I'm curious, though, is Ravion actually taller than Indris? Because the heights in dialogues are all over the place (don't tell me Velara would be taller than Thador if he wasn't standing on an invisible box):

■

He took my amulet with Indris' portrait in it (don't ask why I had it to begin with)

Is there a heterosexual explanation for this?

And if I ever get the Mini-Indris hat, will he take it away from me too? Is he just collecting Indris merch? Is he going to lovingly look at his new Indris amulet and sigh from time to time while Indris is away?

"Youth from lower classes" my ass. What about former royalty of indeterminate age???

■

I've heard that Indris as a playable character isn't currently that useful and can't be properly utilized because he lacks a character who would work well with him. Ravion, when he's playable, will surely fulfill this role, right? Pretty please? I already have my Ravion funds secured, btw. No matter what, I'll use them together.

■

This season raises the topic of motherhood, but in the most messed-up way possible.

The dragon was unconscious for millennia, bound by magic on the bottom of a lava sea, still giving birth to countless eggs without a mate (they were later destroyed by dwarves and the Essail). The Queen gave birth to dozens of children, also without a mate, as a means to get rid of her magical corruption.

And Ravion is connected to both of them, being the Queen's only surviving child and getting his "second half," as he calls it, from the corrupted magic of these unborn dragon embryos.

■

But also, who talks to a grown man like this? A mom! (despite not being biologically connected to him and not caring about him more than just a product of her beloved Queen, she was probably the closest he had to a motherly figure. She even still calls him a boy in her tavern dialogue)

Ugh, it's not a phase, mom Velara!!!

■

I have a type.

(is being into hands less frowned upon than being into feet?)

■

Ravion's guide on following your boss' orders:

Show initiative by giving them orders instead. ("You're the boss, Indris, now go explore the surface")

Educate them on that orders you'd like to be given. (Indris, he doesn't want to patrol the streets, he wants to guard the pool)

Just ignore the orders you don't like. ("But he told you to wait here" - "I didn't hear anything, Merlin, let's go")

■

I haven't been playing for long, and I'm confused about the structure of the seasons in this game, story-wise. I feel like the story ended on a cliffhanger: both Ravion and Thador talked about how the worst is yet to come for Salthorin (how all the inner tension will erupt in a bloody civil war).

Velara—I'm not sure, is she supposed to be dead? I thought she teleported away. If she's alive, she might want to put Ravion on the throne, out of loyalty to the Queen (the thing that the queen's old will warned about).

And Thador did literally nothing so far and then bravely ran away in the end. I have to copypaste his name every time I mention him because I don't even remember his name, that's how important he was. But again, that old will was written by the Queen even before Ravion was born, and it was talking about how Thador should kill both Velara and Ravion in case of the Queen's death. And there might have been a newer but equally fun will since. He has to get a bigger role by the time of his release, right?

So I kind of hoped for a new piece of the story for Phase 2, but I guess not. It says in the mission section that the main story is 90% finished, and I don't think that you can squeeze a civil war into the remaining 10%.

■

PS Look at my cool Merlin. Too bad this spiky halo is going to expire soon, and I don't think I'll be able to get it again anytime soon. Oh and there is some guy. I think he's a hater.

■

As always, these are just my opinions based on the current version of the game, Phase 2 of this season. Written mostly to get this stuff out of my system. Feel free to share what you think about it.

[galactic-feelins]

This time I have more!

In the Runaway City AU, Sora as a Heartless isn't exactly stable, so with enough overwhelming emotion he gets stuck as a shadow sometimes. He can also freely switch after a while of practicing control but for a long while it just kinda happens to him whenever. Also sometimes in self defense! :D

If you found out your new friend was supposed to be killed so some other guy can live, you'd be pretty pissed too :) and besides, Sora just cartoonishly flattens against the floor each time! What's the harm? (I drew him eating a fish right after cuz I felt bad)

And then I went back to Julian! He's so cool :)

I also realized he's relatable to me cuz I also went through high school with one specific hat on at all times cuz it felt nice. It's probably the autism, but it definitely helped me cope tbh! I felt wrong without it ;>_> unfortunately it was against the dress code and I got to hear about that from the vice principle almost daily

Ok there is no sign of me stopping with the doodles on this sketchbook page, so I'll probably post the rest in groups instead of one at a time TwT I just really wanna share cuz I'm having fun!

I've shared 2 of these so far so I'll just share close ups of the new things now and add more in reblogs.

First time drawing Julian but I made him tiny and gave him a tiny Randy to hold hands with :3 Also seen is Danny making minis of Roxas and his monster forms, possibly to try joining a Der Monster Klub game session! Yes those are actual forms they can turn into and yes Danny can form his on command if he tried hard enough. Why not, right?

And of course the NGA (Ninja Ghost Alien) unit! I've had an idea for this image in my head for a long time but it's a bit hard for me to draw them all on model together. Maybe eventually I can try a full render of this, but for now you get the tiny sillies :3

[maybe-boys-do-love]

SOTUS S: The Secret Four-Act of Love Between Us

Five episodes into SOTUS S, I wanted to cry. Nothing tragic had happened. The major plot climaxes were nowhere near. If I'm honest, I had felt pretty indifferent to the sequel series up to that point. Its more expensive production elements, relaxed pace, comedic sound queues, broader characterizations, and blatant callbacks to the original series seemed more akin to  cash-grabbing commercial projects that followed in SOTUS's wake. Some were fun and some fell flat, but those series lacked the show's layered writing or direction. By the end of episode 5, however, something shifted. It continued to surprise my narrative expectations from there on out, offering new ways to appreciate many other BL series due to the clarity of its formal structure. This review is my attempt to understand how and why. 

SOTUS S doesn’t primarily operate by the most prominent Western storytelling rules—the three act or five act structures that build toward a culminating conflict for a climax before an exhaustive resolution. Nor does SOTUS S make as much of an attempt to blend its structure in with the Western storytelling rules as its predecessor did. Instead, it’s a striking example of the Four-Act structure (from hereon: 4Act) that developed in China and spread to Japan, Korea, and Southeast Asia as noted by @kimyoonmiauthor. It’s prominently used in Japan by manga, anime, novelists, and game creators under its Japanese name Kishotenketsu. If you’ve heard about “the three episode rule” in which you have to watch the first three episodes of an anime before passing judgment, that’s often unknowingly related to the principles of the 4Act structure. 

Rather than refer to the Kishotenketsu model here, however, I’d like to use the four parts as defined by the original Chinese poetic form in Adeline Bindra’s explanation for the Savanna Post:

Qi– Bringing into Being

Cheng– Understanding

Zhuan– Changing

He– Drawing Together

I’ve found these definitions more helpful for understanding than the Japanese terms and their English translations, like “introduction,” “twist,” “development,” etc, which have meanings in the Western tradition that differ from they’re use in the Asian narratives. 

Some caveats:

1. I’m an American just trying to figure this out from my own experiences with Asian media and others’ writings about the structure and cultures that utilize it. There’s a ton of Orientalism in writing about the subject of the 4Act structure, and I try my best, but I can’t promise I won’t accidentally slip into some of that rhetoric.

2. No single culture’s a monolith, so not every writer in the cultures will use these structures the same or at all, and the different cultures referenced here—Thai, Japanese, Chinese, Korean—also differ dramatically between one another, and so do their approaches to the 4Act. 

3. Cultures have been interacting and changing forever. Shakespeare included a reference to a Christianized translation of the Buddha’s story in Merchant of Venice, for one example. Asian influences have been a part of Western writing for a long time and vice versa. Western media’s pervasive throughout the world. Inevitably, you’ll see shared aspects from intermingling as well as convergent development. My goal is not to essentialize any people, culture, or story, only to isolate in this instance the feature of the 4Act in SOTUS, which has well-documented Asian roots. 

4. This is a narrative structure not a moral guide on how one should live life at all times. Some writers claim ethical, political, and philosophical implications for its use. However, you get to be the judge of when and how to use it in your perspectives as an audience, creator, and a human being just making it through in the world. 

5. Thai culture has its own specific traditions around this structure and other plot structures that I’m not focusing on here simply for lack of info in English. I’d love to hear more about that from others more knowledgeable than me. Is it taught in schools or writing classes? Does it relate to other Thai dramatic structures? I don’t have the answer, but my mind is inquiring to anyone who does!

6. As with all my posts, feel free to message me about or correct me on mistakes or add more context where I falter.

Hopefully in isolating and differentiating the 4Act model as much as possible from the Western model here, I can demonstrate the latter’s importance to SOTUS S and many other BLs. From here, I’ll try to do a side-by-side comparison of the elements of that 4Act structure with SOTUS S. Spoilers abound for SOTUS S along with several other BLs.

Qi: Bringing into Being 

Premiering in 2018, SOTUS S offered audiences one of the first examples that I know of a BL live-action  about an unequivocally established couple. That fact necessitates a model distinct from the traditional romantic arc you’d find in guides like Romancing the Beat by Gwen Hayes and graphed below by Jenna Harte. 

With an established couple, the whole first act of this three act structure is useless. Our pair already met and they like each other. We already watched them fight through this whole mountainous arc to achieve their romantic HEA (happily ever after for those unaware).

Here’s where our 4Act comes in. Qi, our first act, rather than setting up the characters with some spark the protagonist will have to deal with later on, focuses more heavily on establishing the environment the characters exist within. It's less pressed about setting its conflict into motion. As Jay Six explains helpfully in his self-published book, A Practical Guide to: Kishotenketsu, “The story often starts by establishing a detailed, richly textured world. This focus on observation allows readers to immerse themselves in the environment and the characters, setting up a deep connection with the narrative.” In SOTUS S, that means we get domestic fluff with gentle implications about Kongthob and Art sleeping together. We wander the campus to see Kongpob’s friends in the engineering faculty, now in their third year and in the position of hazers (distinct from the American concept for anyone who’s unfamiliar) to a new set of freshmen. We greet Arthit’s friends at the bar. Then, we follow Art to the new setting of an engineering firm where he’s beginning employment after an internship. You will be taken aback if you, like me, expected all of these characters and settings to be relevant to the action throughout the series. 

I have a brain trained to expect the beginnings of a story to provide a clear impetus for a central problem, as if the story ought to have an on-switch that starts the gears of the narrative turning. My first instinct when it became apparent SOTUS S had not done that was to ascribe the emergences and dissipations of certain elements at the university as service to fans of the original series—let them get a taste of the characters, coupledom, and little university scenes they loved before moving onto the meat of the plot. 

That’s a natural expectation when you’re used to stories focusing exclusively on conflict and individual power. Each piece of the story should link to their effort toward their goal. Bindra describes the ‘dharmic structure’ of the Western narrative arc: “The character is pursuing a specific Dharma, a ‘path’ or ‘way,’ toward a tangible end goal.” Whether they succeed or fail matters greatly under this framework. 

In opposition is the ‘Karmic structure,’ where characters “simply go about their lives until they are forced to react to some bizarre, unforeseen circumstance.” All the elements matter in the Karmic structure but not as a set of stairs the protagonist climbs or a steady accumulation of coins to pay off in the end. The general environment has a larger role to play and the individual has less responsibility in the events that unfold, which impacts the opening. Anaea Lay’s description explains the emphasis on thematic development in the beginning over a Western plot ignition.

“You are much less likely to run into an “inciting incident” or similar in this introduction than you would in an X-Act structure. Instead, what you’ll find are the themes and images the work will be using. You aren’t here to find out what kind of wild ride you’re about to engage in; rather, this is setting you up for what argument or ideas you’re about to witness.” 

That’s why anime fans have a three-episode rule before deciding on their engagement with a series. Those first three episodes have no obligation under the 4Act to indicate the adventure that’s about to occur. 

In the first episode we see Arthit stumble through a disorganized orientation to his first day at work, joining the procurement department at an engineering firm, a stepping stone towards a role at the company more suited to his interests. During an early meal out with his new coworkers, he misses the opportunity to share his relationship with his coworkers. His nervousness is palpable in the moment, and Krist shines in portraying Arthit’s acute anxiety realistically throughout the show. The fear of homophobic reactions isn’t made explicit, but the subtext can’t be ignored with the dramatic music, forlorn expression, and greater context. 

Yet, the show is generous enough to present a moment of possibility, too, where Art seems about to share about his partner before getting interrupted. Bravery isn’t a singular character trait, the scene suggests, but a fleeting feeling dependent on circumstance and luck. It renders the ‘coming out’ narrative that emerges for Art a bit different—less individual and insurgent than the classic western coming-out narrative in, say, The Birdcage or Love, Simon. He has legitimate interests in the appropriate setting, occasion, and timing to maintain positive relationships. He didn’t lack courage as much as he missed the proper moment. 

I’m not of any kind of Asian descent, but these were major values in my personal family culture. I only came out to my family once I had a partner and a cousin’s new same-sex partner came up in conversation at the dinner table. My family simply didn’t discuss internal emotional states, straight or queer, my parents didn’t kiss in public or in front of me and my sister, so bringing up a sexual identity without any outward indicator of my own sexuality didn’t make sense. 

And before anyone jumps to the conclusion that this was some deeper issue of generational repression, know that plenty of research backs up this collectivist-oriented relational style as a broader Appalachian cultural norm (which my family exists within). While no culture exists totally on one part of the spectrum, it like most East and Southeast Asian cultures gets categorized as a high context culture, which prioritizes interpersonal relationships and draws on less direct verbal and nonverbal communication strategies to artfully maintain them when possible. Further research, much of it collected in the fascinating book, Between Us: How Cultures Create Emotions by Batja Mesquita, frames psychological well-being not in a single universal way of interacting, but in interactions and understandings that align beneficially with one’s surrounding culture. 

“I’m working [at the company] already,” Arthit in bed advises Kongpob, “but I still have to learn to adapt.” There’s the crux of Arthit’s story in SOTUS S: how can he find proper alignment of his own unique characteristics to integrate himself within his new work culture, in a department he had little desire or skills to master? Protagonists in a 4Act are responsive rather than goal-oriented. With the same acknowledgement that you can’t control the circumstances you’re born into, they don’t have control over the problematic circumstances they are thrust into by the karmic plot. 

Arthit makes a great 4Act protagonist in SOTUS S. He isn’t the strict senior disciplinarian from the opening of the original series, nor is he the warm, open character healed by that show’s happy ending. The senior is now the nervous junior at the firm, eager to please and conform—these latter traits providing continuity with his original characterization. The junior, Kongpob, is now the authority, the head hazer at the university. These role-reversal topics were already thematically relevant in the first series, but SOTUS S makes them more explicit, bringing us into new territory and depicting an alternative view to linear character growth. 

Kim Yoon Mi describes both Japan and Korea introducing a story’s main topic (not to be confused with main conflict) in the first act of this structure and then developing it more deeply in the second, which SOTUS S seems to do. Each character and story element, including the protagonist, is a trickling mountain stream feeding into a larger river of theme rather than plot. In line with that metaphor, some of those elements will evaporate or branch off before reaching the deep reflective pool where the story concludes. We’ll come to see as we reflect back how solidly the show in its first act laid down its thematic foundations: the dynamics between memories of the past (like university life) with the press of time, the blurry lines between private and public, the formation and maintenance of relationships, the privileges of status, and all of them weighted by pervasive queer anxieties that the writing elegantly restrains itself from stating outright. The next act of the show elaborates on all of this, but not in the direct sort of development Western stories prioritize.

Cheng: Understanding

If viewed from the perspective of a three-act hero’s journey, the second act of SOTUS S runs into some major problems. Here’s a graphic from author Patricia Morais (that I particularly like for its regrouping dip) explaining that structure:

Under this model, we could maybe think of Arthit’s failure to come out to his coworkers as the central inciting incident that must be resolved by the end of the story. If you’d like to be more generous, we might instead identify the incident in episode 2 to identify Art’s tag-along meeting with his overly-friendly coworker, John, and a representative from one of their materials’ providers. Then, our main plot focuses around the eventual plastic crisis for the company as the main conflict that will need resolution. However, the fact of dual plotlines that never merge hopefully encourages you to question the familiar expectations of a three-act structure or hero’s journey. Otherwise, you’ll come away from the show believing a lot of fat could’ve been trimmed off in the editing process.

In episodes 2 through 5, SOTUS S has some elements on which action can rise toward a major climax point. John shirks work off onto Arthit over and over again, for example, and another coworker, Earth—who for me so far in my BL viewing is the most grounded female character I’ve seen, not to mention my favorite—slowly reveals her kind heart behind her diligence. On the relationship front, Ai-Oon is running himself ragged trying to balance his work and relationship, losing his patience with Kong at one point when he shows up to the company with a food delivery. 

But many other points don’t add to the plot the way they ought to for a hero’s journey. We get introduced to a few freshman, like Khaofang, whose crush on Kongpob gets gently denied, and Day, resistant to Kongpob’s enlightened initiation rituals, thus igniting the persistence of class president Tew. Neither of those freshman will contribute to the main plots for Kongpob and Arthit. On the faculty beach trip, now paired with tree-planting to skirt the stricter regulations, M and May finally confess their feelings percolating since last season for one another. After these confessions in episode 4 and a discussion of internships at the start of episode 5, they will not reappear until the last episode of the series.

So why include them? I showed charts for the Romance Plot and  3 Act structure above, but let’s look at a visualization of the 4Act from writing coach Anaea Lay.

You’ll notice some key differences. The line isn’t really progressing upward, for one. It also changes width in sections and even color by the end? I’ll discuss our squiggly twist and color change later, but for now let’s focus on our second act for cheng, Understanding, or “development” as the above chart has it.. We have this bold line emerge because the point of the second act, as Lay explains, is to create density, flesh out the topic, enrich it. 

Instead of building up a structure or walking up a mountain path and overcoming obstacles along the way, the cheng stage kneads the narrative into interlocking thematic explorations like the structure of gluten in bread dough. Japanese writers refer to it as ma, a kind of slow infusion through time and spaciousness. You can develop a 4Act narrative with intensification, sure, and that will appear pretty similar to the three-act development stage—I personally think Hunter x Hunter arcs provide fantastic examples of second-act intensification strategies in a kishotenketsu model, and The Campfire team do a fantastic job of explaining how the series, Shogun, uses the 4 Act with escalating pressure in this stage. Yet other strategies also exist. 

SOTUS S chooses to spread out its thematic question during this phase: to different plots, different people, even different times. Tew and Day, for example, who interact the least with our protagonists’ struggles out of any characters, nevertheless reiterate the values of persistence and faith as people develop ties. Despite Day’s overt resistance to the SOTUS rituals, Tew returns to him again and again, tuned into unstated signs of the freshman’s painful past, like his status as a transfer student, and subtle acts of participation in the events, indicating a secret desire for belonging. Art’s new coworkers provide another example of how much we truly know about others’ inner workings just based on first impressions. 

Perhaps the most direct evocation of the main thematic tension occurs not with KongArt, but with M and May who only receive episode 4 for their story. As the freshman walk across their wrists to go receive their gear emblems, May finally demands clarity for feelings simmering since 2016. I’ve slightly shortened the exchange for brevity.

May: “You never bother to tell me your feelings directly.” M: “Do I have to say it out and tell you to make you understand?” May: “I don’t want to assume things.” M: “What I said on the stage…I meant you.” “You know…what it means, right?” May: “I don’t know, M. You could think of me as a close friend.” M: Well, I…like you. I like you more than a close friend. I want to be your boyfriend. I told you my feelings directly. Now it’s your turn to tell me your feelings. May: Are you crazy? There are so many people here. How can I say it?

It’s gorgeous naturalistic dialogue, stuttering and ambiguous, between two reserved characters! Reducing them to their role in the main plot, however, would render the characters and scene meaningless. M and May simply don’t contribute to the issues at Ocean Electric or KongArt’s relationship. They're an indirect illustration of the show's themes.

Indirect communication is central to SOTUS S. We see Kong and Art, open to their friends and on campus but conflicted in how open to be with their affection in public, bridge the gap through indirect displays: a conversation about liking the sea! shared taxi rides! an indirect kiss they share on an Oishi bottle! These coded romantic encounters can be downright erotic. The West doesn’t even have the concept of an indirect kiss, which is emblematic of the kinds of context that one can miss. 

The show layers on reason-upon-reason for keeping affections nebulous: personal temperaments, professionalism, financial precarity, collective belonging, cultural mores on PDA, and societal homophobia, too. The show lays these issues out indirectly. For example, Art’s coworkers Som-O, Durian, and Cherry (the kind of lovely overtly queer character SOTUS did so well, played by Gun Korawit) all skirt the line of appropriate workplace conversations and behavior as they gossip and fawn over new employees. The tension of their flirtations against our knowledge about the fears and hidden relationships at the office is thick, but no one will really confront them directly about how close their speech and actions how they stress those in the closet, nor how close they come to sexual harassment.

Instead, other occurrences will cause them to reflect on behaviors. Cherry, for example,  addresses his own behavior and his subordinates’ after news about Arthit and Kongpob becomes public. Cultures with high-context communication approaches utilize actions, behaviors, and symbols to convey messages rather than verbal specificity, so passive statements and unrelated events are seen as more effective in encouraging behavior change than direct communication about the issue. That’s why the 4Act structure and the indirect elaboration of ideas that occurs in the second-act align culturally. It doesn’t force its issue on the audience.

The most indirect formal element from my perspective occurred with the use of the ‘special scenes’ at the end of each episode, and they fully blew my mind by the time I realized how they were operating. I assumed these flashback scenes to KongArt moments were meant to give the fan-girlies the cute moments between the cute boys and their throwbacks to the og series. That’s how they often seem to work in other BLs. Stupid me, underestimating the series and fan-girlies, whose desires can be as multifaceted as any film critic or academic. The flashbacks at the end of each episode, in addition to their sweetness, emphasize moments of public affection between our main couple, but even more than that they intentionally throw us back in time, breaking up the linear story and a linear trajectory for Arthit’s comfort with public affection. 

The special scenes aren’t simply detached scenes, they’re narrative switchbacks, forcing us an audience to meander like a river in the story. Kim Yoon Mi describes a major element of the East Asian 4Act: “While time is going forwards, the character is returning to a previous point in their life, re-examining it–or forced to reexamine it.” I described the original series as propulsive and unrelenting in its tempo and plotting. SOTUS S, on the other hand, is nostalgic and reflective in both content and its structure. 

Arthit, tired from a day of work, rushes to his alma mater to catch the end of the flag ceremony. “When I get to see the atmosphere like this again,” he confides, “it’s like the fuel tank in me is filled. This can fill the feelings I have lost. My tiredness is gone. I have the strength to go back to work now.” For another example look at the contrast as episode 6 ends with Kongpob standing in an apartment hallway alone after an argument with his boyfriend. The show suddenly cuts to a past moment when Arthit let himself fall asleep on Kongpob’s shoulder in the back of a taxi. When we feel broken, worn-down, or lost, when we undergo big life changes, returning to our memories gives us an opportunity to repair ourselves and cherish the relationships we’ve made. 

Meandering is the shape of easing—mountain roads that reduce the gradient of a climb, water seeking the least resistance. SOTUS S and its narrative structure explore these shapes. In addition to the purpose of nostalgia for its characters, it uses its position as a sequel to address why returning us to an older work might be emotionally useful and why an indirect path through time and our journeys might be nourishing. After the steady fabrication of its attachment to the original series in the first and second acts, the third act shift is all the more potent.

Zhuan: Changing

In the sixth episode, Kongpob joins Ocean Electric as an intern with the encouragement of his father, the CEO of a manufacturing firm Arthit has met and impressed without realizing his relationship to his partner. Kong had left the required internship applications to the last minute, at ease with the connections his wealth and father’s position in his field of study offer him. And with Arthit’s packed work schedule (not to mention Kong’s impish romantic fantasies that only stress out his partner), our nong doesn’t disclose his decision. Art is shocked and appalled when his boyfriend walks into a meeting and gets introduced as the new intern.

The show also introduces new central characters to the cast in the fifth and sixth episode, which is far too late for introductions of main characters in a traditional Western narrative approach. Wad, whose privilege as the nephew of Ocean Electric’s head honcho mirror Kong’s background, joins the procurement department. Another intern, Nai, also joins the proceedings. These characters and their softly-treaded dalliances at Ocean Electric fill in the space left as the story mostly abandons the university and all but two supporting characters we met there.

I've read complaints about that split in SOTUS S, the university-centered plots in the first half overtaken by the corporate setting. Personally, the viewing experience gave me a sense of how ephemeral life is. Four months pass by in a flash and Arthit’s no longer the junior at the office. The university storylines fall away like cherry blossoms or autumn leaves. If that sounds too poetic for you, I'd recommend you stick to the first series and its fantastic linear storytelling (and you can ignore the poetic elements that elevate it, while still enjoying the show). SOTUS S puts its indirect storytelling strategies at the forefront. That’s why I find SOTUS S such a great example to look at the 4Act. The overt shift here makes it hard to square with the continuity of traditional Western dramatic structures.

In the third act of a 4Act structure, the audience comes to understand a new perspective on the proceedings that the first two acts offered them. The Japanese term for it “ten” gets directly translated to ‘twist,’ but that term is so heavily associated with some plot-oriented ‘gotcha!’ moment in the western canon: 

a new piece of evidence in a trial! 

the sheriff is in cahoots with the robber baron! 

Voldemort’s on the back of his head! 

There are many reasons to view two of the most celebrated Western film twists, Star Wars’ paternity reveal and dead Bruce Willis in The Sixth Sense, as blendings with the Eastern third act’s Change. The overt declarations made by characters to render the twists apparent to audiences in those instances along with the instrumental role the change plays in the character’s journey is rooted in Western storytelling. However, the impact it has on how the audience interprets the story, both preceding events and the purpose of the story as a whole, is more akin to the kind of change that occurs in the Eastern model. The zhuan or Change here is less emphatically about a reveal of information and more about a change the audience experiences in their type of engagement with the story. 

Youtuber ‘Pause and Select’ relates the change in the 4Act structure to space. Discussing Attack on Titan, which has the exceptionally clear spatial limit of tightly packed city walls, he explains it as a ‘parallax view,’ a shift in perspective for the audience. Going further, he asserts that the third act shift is NOT meant to be a last-ditch event or realization that aids the story in reaching the conclusions we expected it to reach based on the first two acts. Elle Woods finding out her boss is a skeeve and then taking over to use her knowledge about perms in trial to prove her client’s innocence is a great western ‘twist’ and climax, which includes every feminist element Elle has come to stand for in her development at Harvard law school and brings about the expected conclusion of her success at overcoming all her obstacles to truly become a successful lawyer. However, it does nothing to change the audience’s perspectives about the story’s goals as a female empowerment legal comedy.

 “What matters,” Pause and Select argues about the 4Act change, “is that a breakdown, whether you are a reader or writer of [the 4Act structure], ultimately demands coming to a conclusion as to what you think the structure is trying to do.” The emphasis there is mine. A well-constructed 4Act aims to dislodge expectations about the very nature of the narrative it's telling in its third act. At its most obvious, this could be a genre shift—a romcom becomes a tragedy—but it might also be a change in whose perspective the story takes (Peaceful Property), which character is masterminding the events (a favorite of writer/director Park Chan-wook, like in The Handmaiden), or an expansion of who the audience is meant to feel empathy for (a fav strategy of Miyazaki, like in Laputa, Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke). A common romantic Kdrama trope of this kind, I hear, is the revelation that the characters previously knew each other. No matter the shift, thematic motifs will remain (a good reason to pay attention to indirect elements!), but the plot-type possibilities and full extent of the theme’s message can utterly transform. 

When viewers use Western frameworks to complain about the poor build-up or the introduction of unexpected elements into the second half of BL series, the complaint often comes from a place of ignorance. I’ve even heard unfounded conspiracy theories about studio interference regarding the sense of the unexpected in these sections! When viewed with the goals of the 4Act in mind—and here we ought to note the Korean 4Act model, the giseungjeongyeol, which splits its 4Acts more evenly than the Japanese kishotenketsu, as Kim Yoonmi points out—an audience’s experience of disruption that begins around episode 6 of a 12 ep series can be a sign of successful storytelling and a chance to reevaluate what you assumed the story was going to be.

No wonder I found myself getting weepy around episode 6. Time itself is the core focus of SOTUS S. By the end of the second act in episode 5, the hazing rituals we endured for fifteen episodes in the og had flashed by and completed. I began to fully appreciate the breadth of how SOTUS S intended to instill the experience of no longer being what you were before, the experience of merging into the realm of adulthood where the flowing expanse of life is no longer broken into semesters or organized into class years nor the safety of their forcibly forged friendships. It's an exceptional feat of storytelling to induce that subtle emotional experience for an audience.

With that shift, the problems and consequences shift as well. A third act often introduces an entirely new obstacle. The boss of Ocean Electric announces the yearly product design competition, and the shady dealings of certain employees suggestively simmering in the first half rise to the surface. In a Western telling, the series could’ve easily started right here. It brings the conflict, the battle between good (Earth and Arthit) and evil (John and Som-O), along with the slight moral grayness of Todd to keep it interesting. The pace and tempo of the scenes pick up, especially when the shit hits the fan/the cheap plastic hits the production line. It thrills with the same surge that ran through a majority of the original series. Is this conflict what the story’s about, though? 

Some people have described the 4Act as a conflictless plot structure. That’s baloney! You’ll see battle after battle after battle in shonen manga, like Naruto, Dragon Ball, One Piece, and Jujutsu Kaisen, all organized by the principles of The 4Act. SOTUS S shows off its ability to instill conflict with Ocean Electric’s design competition, too. The difference between the 4Act and the Three-Act or hero’s journey derives from the latter’s centralization of a single conflict compared to the former’s use of diffused conflicts—diffused in the sense of multiple conflicts spread out without a center, and, as I’ll explain for the last act, diffused in the sense of de-escalated. 

The issue of the competition is one conflict beside a number of other dating conflicts, with KongArt’s the most prominent, none of which directly impact each other in terms of plotting. In this section, Todd slowly falls for Earth, who gently turns him down (again, with writing and a performance by Proud Oranicha that solidify Earth as a uniquely naturalistic female character in a genre known for campy female caricatures). The other new intern Nai (Nammon) and head of Production, Yong (Guy Sivakorn) begin the most discrete of bromances, or maybe something more…, until Nai feeling slighted draws back. And KongArt have it out about Kongpob’s surprise internship decision before making up, allowing Ai-oon opportunities to show his growing comfort in his secret bf’s surreptitious seductions in public.

And let’s all appreciate that the boys continue to engage in versatile powerplay dynamics with their displays of affection! 

To properly center a single conflict for a Hollywood version of SOTUS S, all of these individual tensions would end up relating to one another—perhaps Todd and Nai become bitter about their rejection and join John’s plot to win the competition. Then, as a last ditch attempt to gain support for their own team’s entry, they discover and out KongArt’s secret relationship. Plenty of other options could take place, but the point is that they’re meant to be set up like that meme of ever-increasing dominos, building upon one another to create an even greater singular conflict. Instead, we see jealousies that come to nothing, slights that characters move on from without involving others. SOTUS S lets the different conflicts exist independently to separately emphasize the main theme: relationships take time, dedication, communication, and faithfulness to develop and maintain as people’s circumstances change.

The company beach outing provides the landscape for many of the relationship dramas to come to a head (and strikes a narrative beach episode beat with foundations exceeding the BL genre) before things go awry. If I’m honest, elements of Western Romance plotting seem to predominate this last portion of the third act: a false HEA (happily ever after) at the beach, disaster as the bad plastic goes on the line, and true crisis as office busybody, Durian, outs Kong and Art by sharing pics of them kissing from the beach trip. Then episode 12, as second-to-last episodes in romance series are wont to do, offers us a separation of sorts and a long dark night of the soul for Arthit before he arrives at his self-realization. It’s a beat integral to the 4Act and the Romance arc, but in the 4Act, despite its sometimes momentous occasion, the self-realization is secondary to the initial perspective-shift in terms of expected emotional and overall engagement from the viewer. Art announces he’s dating Kongpob in front of the entire office at the intern send-off. In the romance arc, the self-realization and confession change everything. The villains like Lady Catherine are dispelled; the curse on the beast breaks, Here, though; Love Wins! But here, we de-escalate.

He: Drawing Together

The 4Act sensibilities in SOTUS S resurface after the culmination. Arthit finally announces his relationship in front of the whole office, but no character stands-in for homophobia for him to confront. John was fired earlier for his fraud without a big to-do from the office. No one sings “Ding! Dong! The witch is dead!” In fact, a few of our office gossips get together to discuss John and Arthit but keep interrupting one another before landing on any consensus and finally move onto a point unrelated to our plot. The central issues for KongArt are simply not the center of everyone’s lives and neither love nor coming out were the battle Arthit and we as an audience expected them to be.

Where we might expect fireworks in other structures, the 4Act often brings a sense of pacification. No matter how significant a conflict might seem, the 4Act story structure is not built around a conflict’s upswell and subsequent victory. Patricia Thang explains for Book Riot, 

“Whether it is open-ended, whether our characters didn’t go through real development or growth, whether we realize nothing much actually happened at all, it doesn’t matter that much in kishōtenketsu (and is what, in my humble opinion, makes it great). What matters is that the various elements from the different acts of the story come together in a finale, as climactic or as muted as it may be.”

A 4Act story does not attempt to fix but to accept an uncontrollable universe. It's a diplomatic process when division otherwise threatens.

The Chinese character for the he fourth section, 結, apparently refers to the tying of a knot, which presents quite the opposite picture from the ‘reckoning’ expected in Western conclusions. The word ‘reckon’ in addition of its meaning 'to tell a story' etymologically refers to ordering items in a straight line. Instead of straightening out a tangled problem, the 4Act story aims to create an elegant tension between two dissimilar opposing parts by the end. 

We can look at a comic panel illustration of this structure from @stilleatingoranges to try and understand it further. Here are the first two acts:

In the first act, the qi, the ‘bringing into being,’ we see a character selecting a soda at a vending machine. The soda plops into the machine’s outlet. In the second act, the cheng, the Understanding, the character grabs the soda from the machine, continuing the story in an expected way without any hitch. There’s no clear obstacle or goal presented here. If we had to guess what will happen in the third act, we might say she’ll drink the soda. If we think the story needs a problem, she might have received the wrong soda. If we knew a twist was coming, we might guess she throws the can. Here’s the third act of this story:

We do not know this character. We don’t know this setting. This is a particularly demonstrative example of the third act, the zhuan, the Changing, because it shows how this act shifts the audience’s perception of the environment and point of this story. It’s not necessarily a twist in what the characters know and expect—we still have no idea about what they’re thinking and/or they’re relationship at all! It’s a twist for the viewer and what they assume they know and expect.

I’ve left out the final panel in my post so that, before you peek at the fourth act—the he, the Drawing Together—of these panels, you can take the place of a writer/creator and consider some ways these two disparate sections can come to coexist in the fourth panel. The girl might walk past this new isolated boy as she downs her soda. Maybe we see him watching as she opens the pop and it sprays all over her. Then, it brings out topics of impatience and embarrassment. You can probably think of more creative versions than me. The final panel the original artist chose to depict has the woman giving her soda to the newly introduced character. These are all acceptable conclusions to the 4Act as long as they reunite the world of the first two acts with the unexpected element of the third act. If you remember the blue color in the final section in the 4Act chart, it’s this combination of elements it represents. It might be helpful to think of the first two acts shaded yellow, with a suddenly blue third act, and a green fourth act.

For SOTUS S, Kongpob is back on campus in the final episode, reuniting us with the first and second act setting and characters from which the third act leapt away. He’s with his friends who’ve learned their own lessons and formed their own relationships during their internship semester. Arthit is back at his office sans intern-boyfriend with the offer of a new job in his preferred department. He turns down for the time being to support his own team instead. Durian goes to apologize to Arthit for leaking his photo, but he interrupts her before she can. It’s already forgiven. He tactfully offers her the opportunity to save face. 

I’ve seen these sorts of non-apologies across BL. They often ignite many audience member’s consternation who argue the characters didn’t deserve forgiveness for whatever harm they caused because they haven’t demonstrated a change in their behavior or fully acknowledged their wrong-doing. Unlike some other views of forgiveness, though, they often center around Eastern philosophical goals like the Indic-derived concepts of upekkha (translated as equanimity) and karuna (translated as compassion), for example. The latter is even considered a primary rasa, or aesthetic principle, in classical Indian theories of the arts that have persisted in importance into the cinematic era according to its wiki entry. Both are also part of the four heavenly abodes in Theravada Buddhism, the primary religion in Thailand. Rather than creating a world where those conditions don’t occur, these values focus on an individual’s ability to understand and remain balanced in the face of worldly conditions defined in the atthaloka dharma as “gain and loss, good-repute and ill-repute, praise and censure, pain and happiness.” Good and bad come and go, but one isn't meant to overly celebrate or grieve them. People and events are not meant to be ‘fixed’ in this view but understood.

Arthit’s forgiveness of Durian who continues her gossip demonstrates the understanding he gains in the story. As I said at the beginning, Arthit’s main goal is to adapt to his new environment. It’s a spiritual journey in which he achieves a new-found state of harmony within himself and with his group without directly engaging in conflict in the form of confrontation.  

The happy-ending version of the 4Act emphasizes reconnection in the relationships between members of a group, which is why the structure works especially well for a romance about an established couple. For each episode, the Japanese BL What Did You Eat Yesterday, about an older couple who live together, uses the 4Act effectively for its characters to grow in appreciation of each other. While Western stories have struggled to tell stories about established couples, the structure most Japanese iyashikei (slice-of-life genre) utilize works beautifully!

In Thailand, you can see the influence of SOTUS S in Aof Noppharnach’s two series about established couples, Still 2Gether and Dark Blue Kiss. He borrows the structure and even elaborates on subtle motifs in the series, like financial privilege, memories and public documentation through photographs, and invisibility of legally unrecognized and closeted relationships (conveyed in one of my favorite moments in all of the SOTUS series as KongArt transform into silhouettes inside a tunnel in a ‘special scene’). Then Aof blows these elements up into full foregrounded spectacles like Kao’s photographic birthday surprise for Pete or Tine’s walk down memory lane through saved vids and photos of Wat. Then, Aof can focus on subtext that’s more philosophical in his own series: “Love has no form,” Pete theorizes at the end of DBK. Lit Phadung and the rest of his writing team for SOTUS S were never so explicit as to put that theory into the script, but it’s all there in the details. KongArt might re-form their established relationship, bringing it ‘out’ into the view of the office, but it’s contrasted by all the ambiguous relationship endings running parallel to them. 

Those relationships don’t feel incomplete, at least to me. Open endings are a staple of the 4Act structure. It requires the acts to reconnect, but does not require problems to be resolved or questions to be answered. Instead the 4Act emphasizes structural and thematic unity and harmony, even for what we might call unhappy endings in romance. For a recent and clear BL example, The On1y One ends with its romantic leads separated in a similar vein to how they began the story while one of them literally re-ties the circle of a broken couple bracelet as he asks his beloved to return to him in a non-diegetic voiceover. Then the series cuts to a glass pitcher of lemon-water we’ve watched shatter over and over throughout the episodes, now whole and unbroken, as the other answers him. Our fourth act endings, done well, challenge a dualistic view. The two contrasting halves circle around to reconnect without one winning out over the other. Compared to a Western resolution, it might seem like these are unfinished loose ends, but they can be better understood as a satisfying tension or an equipoise. The On1y One ending refuses to accept that people are either together or apart, that time is either past or future. 

If separate narrative ends are looped together in elegant knots, what does this mean for the ‘coming out’ narrative with its journey that requires opposing forces and a protagonist to move from one side to another: in to out, private to public, even straight to queer? Well, in BL you often end up with a version of queerness that resists identitarian approaches. Art, in the most dramatically built-up moment in the series, makes a public statement about dating Kongpob…but he already did this coming out in the original series and he continues to rebuff his boyfriend’s flirtations afterwards. (It’s a part of their sexual foreplay as much as a part of Art’s shame.)

SOTUS S and much of BL depicts coming out as something done again and again cyclically as you enter into new environments or an act that’s not entirely manifesting (think Bad Buddy’s ending). And sexuality is not so simple as defining a gender one feels attracted toward, nor having pride or shame about those feelings. These are aspects of our relationships with ourselves and with others that even after making them public will still remain private, not fully knowable to others—both shared and secret. 

Drawing My Own Thoughts Together

Maybe I’m wrong. Throughout writing this, I nearly abandoned the project. I’m no expert in the history of Eastern media or storytelling, and especially not Thai—I’ve only dove into their BL. I can see how you could line up SOTUS S with a Western hero’s journey or romance plot. In fact, more so than other Asian national film traditions, at least according to the authors of Thai Cinema: The Complete Guide, the Thai media industry has a history and aesthetic interest in mashing genres and global influences into heterogeneous, palimpsestic concoctions. Multiple structures can and do coexist in these works.

I also became aware of how flat I and the resources had to render Western storytelling to illustrate the points about the 4Act. The differentiation between the two region’s approaches becomes much more murky when we bring in nuanced and celebrated works because they flesh out the bones more fully, relish ambiguities and ironies about their own nature, bring in broader influences, and take an interest in the unexpected. The structure’s often harder to pick apart. The goal, I’ve found while writing, is not to be wrong or right about the structure of the series here, but to educate myself and hopefully a few others about an influence of which we could learn more to fully appreciate what we’re watching. 

I was not surprised when after watching the series, I found an instagram post of the screenwriter and director Lit Phadung teaching different film structure approaches at a university. SOTUS S, in my view, simply can't be interpreted as a whole unless you are willing to see how its structure operates differently than the Western arc. It patiently weaves its medium and story about the office closet into an expansive pattern rather than mounting an epic battle between right and wrong.

Rather than take my words for right or wrong, I hope this gives others some threads to follow and thread in a web of info and interpretations. I know some tumblrinas I’ve connected with over BL and some with whom I’ve yet to connect have language skills, literary knowledge, and personal experiences to add on to what I’ve attempted to present here. Despite the prevalent mentions of kishotenketsu and the 4act as a structure used by Miyazaki, Kurosawa, and Bong Joon Ho, as well as a device in manga, anime, and Eastern literature traditions, there’s a dearth of well-sourced break-downs and explanations in English, scholarly or otherwise. This was simply my attempt to bring together information about the model in a BL context.

Throughout, I’ve highlighted specific Western blindspots I’ve noticed in criticism of BL shows: the perspective shift at the top of the third act, the slow development, the blanket forgiveness, among other things. A show can use these strategies and still be unsatisfying, don’t get me wrong. However, viewers miss the point when they frame the dissatisfaction using Western storytelling expectations. I’m insistent that we’ve gotta develop our language and perspectives to describe the intentions and breadth of what these shows aim for along with deepening our understanding of why.

It’s not limited to how we watch SOTUS S or Asian dramas. One of my favorite films, Junebug, which earned Amy Adams her first Oscar nomination, is a family drama set and filmed in the American South by a writing/directing team from the area, but inspired by the films of celebrated Japanese director Yasujiro Ozu because of how similar his style seemed culturally to the southerners they grew up with. Obviously, cultures beyond Asia emphasize these values and it behooves us to understand how to communicate with and within them, especially when a tendency exists to assume those communication values are inherently conservative. In fact, there are moments in all of our lives when we might need to emphasize social harmony, compassion, slow development, or karmic paths over dharmic ones, and the reasoning can be as progressive as any revolution. 

One of the moral values at the core of 4Act structures is appreciating our belonging to one another. “Strive at first to meditate upon the sameness of yourself and others,” reads Shantideva’s writing about the concept of karuna in The Way of the Bodhisattva. “In joy and sorrow all are equal; Thus be guardian of all, as of yourself.” Perceived cultural differences between values and plot structures need not be perceived as so separate. Queerness maybe doesn’t need to be ‘the other.’ Relationships and coming-out don’t need to be a battle. We can change and remain the same at once. SOTUS S and stories like it that use the 4Act demonstrate how art and events in our lives can come along to expand our perspectives without requiring we blame ourselves or others for not realizing it earlier. It holds wrong and right together, difference and unity, without flattening them into assimilation. Two distinct parts held together, which is, after all, the shape of a couple.

Tagging some other SOTUS fans who've kept the passion alive while i worked on this @thebroccolination @dropthedemiurge @doublel27 @moutheyes @ginnymoonbeam

[project2028]

Former Vice President Kamala Harris appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and talked about the state of the country, her decision not to pursue the Governorship of California and her newest book ‘107 Days’ which is a first hand account of her presidential election run . Here are some quotes from the interview:

When asked if she will pursue elected office again:

“Recently I made the decision that I just — for now — I don’t want to go back in the system. I think it’s broken.”

On the state of American Democracy:

“I always believed that, as fragile as our democracy is, our systems would be strong enough to defend our most fundamental principles. And I think right now they’re not as strong as they need to be.”

On how politicians are responding to Donald Trump:

“Perhaps it’s naive of me … there should be many who consider themselves to be guardians of our system and our democracy who just capitulated, and I didn’t see that coming…There are a lot of people who think they’re riding out the storm as an excuse to be feckless.”

On how Congress is responding to Donald Trump:

“When you see that the president of the United States is trying to get rid of the Department of Education, and Congress has the role and responsibility to stand in the way of that, and they’re just sitting on their hands, and then they go to recess.”

On stepping in as the Democratic nominee after Biden dropped out the race.

“I wasn’t going to ‘pile on’ Joe Biden….Some in my circle said I should be prepared to replace him—but the decision was his…I have an incredible amount of respect for him … we had a president … who believed in the rule of law… that is where I will leave that.”

On her response to her election loss:

“It took Months [to turn on the tv after losing the election] I’m just not into self-mutilation.’”

On if she has an “I told you so” moment:

“I got a lot of grief for saying it at the time, but I said it then, and I’ll say it again now — Donald Trump was a threat to our democracy. And people didn’t want to hear it. Well, now here we are.

[sunlit-skycat]

I've been going through a partial reread of Pale, trying to gather my thoughts about Verona. One thing that sticks out a lot more that I've been primed to look for it is that Verona actually cares, in her own way.

I'll admit, this was not a read that I had from the beginning. The first time around through Pale, for much of the story, I was thinking of Verona as a redo of Taylor Hebert from the outside, a ruthless fighter with a talent for figuring out and weaponizing powers who compartmentalized her emotions a lot, where her seeming lack of emotion and rationally violent power-maxxing was more overtly treated as not objectively correct 100% all the time. Regardless of how true that is for Taylor (it's been a long time since I read Worm), that missed several key parts of Verona.

What's actually going on with Verona is that she doesn't like seeing people suffer (human and Other), but she's had to continually repress her emotions to deal with Bret constantly going off about things, and this makes her bad at recognizing her own emotions. It doesn't help that Bret accuses her of being indifferent, and that no amount of emotional support that Verona can provide could solve Bret's problems. Verona is especially bad at telling when she is having an empathetic reaction to someone in pain, because Bret's verbal abuse makes her think she doesn't have it.

Outside of Bret, Verona's care is much more visible. There's everything she does for Lucy and Avery, for one. For another, there's the way she tries to communicate with Others that most people write off. She apologizes to the spirits in the lawn while cutting the grass, and to her demesne after it is wrecked by Charles. In the Judge AU vision about worth, she puts herself on the line for a random bound goblin and dies for it.

The worst damage that Verona does to people tends to be in the moment, unplanned, and usually a result of using Practice to achieve a goal that hits the other party worse than intended. See Bristow's brownieing, or Edith getting blasted in 9.9. Verona comes up with a clever way to use Practice without thinking through the consequences, then regrets the extra damage later. This is different from being coldly unfeeling about the damage she is doing.

In the times that Verona plans her violence ahead of time, she actually has to justify it to herself why she's allowed to do this. In 16.7, when Verona forces out the Undercity residents of the Below version of the House on Half Street, she has to get some other locals to tell her that these people are worth attacking, and repeatedly states in her internal narration that they hurt others first, they're resisting the preferred authority of the Vice Principle and the Bitter Street Witch, and that they're fighting back with dangerous amounts of force. These are all profoundly moral arguments! Whether these are good reasons to attack someone or not with the level of force she used, it's notable that Verona had to keep up a running commentary in her head about how her actions were morally okay. On top of that, it's explicitly stated that she has to dissociate away from the pain she is causing in the same way she has to dissociate from Bret's meltdowns.

In short, Verona has a sense of empathy, and when she does deliberate, planned violence to someone, she has to justify it to herself in the way that someone with empathy would. She is not a sociopath, as she fears she has turned into after ignoring Bret's diatribes for so long.

However, she does unsettle people. Verona has a ravenous curiosity about Practice that includes the ability to excitedly talk about weaponizing it in abstract ways, even if she'd feel bad about actually seeing the damage she caused with that. Additionally, she enjoys it when people around her are nettled by her actions or harmlessly spooked, even when it is Lucy and Avery. She identifies as someone who thrives where others would be put off-balance, and embraces dark aesthetics. All of these combine so that other people tend to read Verona as far more ruthless and amoral than she actually is, including me the first time through Pale. She doesn't put out a lot of the signifiers people are used to when determining how friendly, warm, and safe someone is, which makes others think worse of her.

To sum it all up, Verona cares about people, but for much of the story has a hard time recognizing this. When she commits grievous harm, either it went further than she expected and she feels bad about it later, or she has to continually tell herself that she is only stooping to their level so she doesn't feel bad about it. She enjoys it when other people feel low-level vexation or discomfort that does not rise to the level of lasting harm, and has a difficult time expressing discomfort over real violence, which means that people do not realize the extent to which she cares for others. Her empathy runs deep, but is invisible to most people including herself.

[beevean]

Am I tripping or does the Netflix fandom rely on outside sources to make up for the lack of characterization of the characters and/or to romanticize and ship them ?(edits, fanfics,etc) and what’s interesting is that almost all of the outside influences comes from the established fan community of the games ( the one they like to disparage)

Almost all Alucard x reader fanfics include him being quiet and soft spoken , self loathing and undeserving of love until reader meets him. Oh boy do I wonder where this Alucard comes from (N!Alucard would have definitely offended the reader by saying rude things in the first five mins of them meeting)

The entire sypha x Trevor x Alucard ship because literally every time Trypha gets the chance to leave they do it and the romance is non existing in the show even the themes of the ship relies on the game community

Isaac x Hector is also heavily influenced by the game community but just swap game Hector to anime Isaac and vice versa

The enemies to lovers Trevor x Dracula while unpopular but it exists and the format of it is very similar to what you would see in the game fans community

It’s honestly interesting how much the Netflix fan base relies on the games and their dedicated fanbase and it seems that 90% of the time they are unaware of the influences of the games. The creators just found an edit or a fanfic that they loved how the character was portrayed in and then said portrayal becomes popular

My wholehearted belief is that Trephacard as a ship exists solely because fans started churning out fanfictions between seasons and they forgot the actual development of their "dynamic". Yes, there are fics that "fix" the story and have Trevor and Sypha come back for Alucard because they're such good friends. No, they are not canon. If you sit down and watch the whole thing from start to finish, you'll see how Trephacard spend less than half of the total screetime together, and most of it was Alucard being a dripping cunt to Trevor and Sypha rushing to scold Trevor for daring to be upset. Then Trepha ditch his ass to go bang in a wagon leaving their "friend" grieving and depressed. I'm not even sure Alucard would even tell them about the not-twins - considering that Greta's reaction to that was a shitty "ah yes I too fucked a married man once" joke, I doubt he would open up again.

N!Isaactor might be born from similar origins. Those two could not give less of a shit about each other. Hector routinely forgets Isaac's existence until he's reminded of it, and Isaac makes clear that he thinks of Hector as a mentally deficient child, even after his super duper amazing character development ("I forgive you because you lacked agency :)"). But, if you spent the hiatuses fantasizing about Isaac "forgiving" Hector, Hector missing Isaac, and then you came up with a whole world in your head where the two fall in love post-canon and Isaac uses his holy penis to heal Hector of his trauma, then that's the only way I can imagine you liking the ship, because man does canon give you less than nothing. I can't even compare it to game Isaactor, as the appeal of that ship is them going from friends to divorsties, unlike the show where they go from coworkers barely tolerating each other to castlemates tolerating each other a little more.

(I also personally suspect, but I have no proof, that there has been a nasty ship war between N!Isaactor and Lenector, as the only people willing to criticize N!Isaac I've seen were staunch Lenore stans. It makes sense to me that Isaac fans and Lenore fans would fight over who deserves the Hector-shaped prize more. In the case of N!Isaactor, the mentality would be that Hector should be with Isaac so that the two could "heal" together, which isn't even wrong in principle, but... idk, I'm personally uncomfortable with scenarios where N!Hector is depicted as nothing more than a traumatized victim. I've read fics where he's written to be basically a beaten dog. But it's not even the fandom's fault, it's what the show did first.)

I wouldn't say that they rely on the games, as many fans don't even know of their existence, let alone appreciate their characterizations (I've seen plenty of N!Alucard fans insist that game Alucard has no personality and the show version is more "human"). It's just run of the mill fandomization. Alucard is turned into a soft vulnerable bean because it's more appealing for hurt/comfort purposes, justifying his rudeness with "Trevor brings the worst out in people" or not even registering it as rudeness. They hallucinate a strong polycule relationship based on the "steamy" "sexual tension" between Alucard and Trevor, oblivious to the clear imbalance between the two (Trevor is nowhere near as rude and aggressive as the fan favorite blorbo), while Sypha tags along as the team mom. Of course anyone would imagine the two Forgemasters to have any sort of bond or narrative parallels, that's what any decent story would come up with rather than keeping them separate for the entire runtime, giving everything to Isaac without a struggle and pissing on Hector nonstop. And Trevor/Dracula... idk i guess people found the "you must be the belmont" joke hilarious? I got nothing lol. Maybe it's the subconscious realization that Trevor did jack and shit in the story he's supposed to be the protagonist of? dbd fans did it better, there is some excellent porn out there that is somehow still ic to the games

But yeah. While filling in the gaps is common to pretty much every fandom except those of the most pristinely-written products (hell I do the same with the CV games), the dissonance between the fandom's vision of certain characters/ships and what I've seen with my own eyes is so strong, I suspect that a lot of it was born during the hiatuses and with a massive collective hallucination. See: the fandom's weird insistence to call Alucard with his deadname, because it would be more "poetic" ig

And I would care a lot less about fans hallucinating a better story which is every fan's given right, if they didn't use it as a way to prop up actual canon, especially at the expense of other products like the source material.

[biscuitboba]

I see people sometimes saying things like "yeah zoro is deeply infatuated but i can't see luffy reciprocating", "luffy is just too ace for me and i just can't imagine him being with anyone:/??"

[Speaking of ace luffy headcanon, begging people to reconstruct their view about ace people cuz it almost sounds like "ace people are incapable of loving/being in a relationship" sometimes:(]

People always talk about roronoa zoro and how he loves (whatever platonic or romantic, you named it) his captain. Because this is by default is the easiest thing to do. It's clear to see. You can see zoro's love, laid bare, palpable throughout the whole series. But honestly, what about luffy?

Disclaimer: these are my takes that are purely based on how i interpret zolu, so like honestly i'm just offering to share some of my (and probably other zolu people too) thoughts(?) about zoro and luffy (specifically luffy)

I think the first thing to establish is that with luffy, it's about the subtlety behind his every actions and words.

The way monkey d. luffy loves

It's about the way luffy understands roronoa zoro. Both zoro and luffy are probably the one that understand each other the most. Both can understand each other ohh so easily, i've talked about this before, here. Throughout the whole one piece you can see them exchanging glances or maybe a few words, or maybe you can even see them understanding each other just by reading each other's body language! guessing what's on the other person's mind, or what they are about to do. They just get each other. They are also very in sync and compatible (approved by mihawk!!), very comfortable with each other, and happy with each other... and really, that only makes sense, because understanding is such a key element in a relationship! Cause what is love without understanding right??

I'd say it's about the way luffy leans on zoro the most, how he listens to his words, how zoro is his sturdy rock. Luffy is a captain and he is quite prideful, but he is willing to lean on his first mate when he needs it. It's about how zoro's the one that will be strong for him when luffy himself is incapable of doing so, it's about zoro being his number one anchor. (Another 'of course i've talked about it', here).

It's also about how luffy is the one who respects zoro's dream/ambition the most (mihawk, baratie arc). But more importantly it's about how he values zoro as a person. Zoro and all the things that makes zoro, zoro. His principles, his strengths, and even his flaws. (I'm talking about shells town and the things zoro 'showed' (about himself) that made luffy so enamored with him, to the point that he needed to make this person part of his crew)

It's about the way he likes to admire and praise zoro for his skills whenever he can. How he puts so much trust in zoro. Trusting zoro with his crew and undoubtedly also trusting in zoro's strength. Trust in his ability to perform specific task, trust in his ability to lead as the vice captain, trust in his decision making skills, trust his judgement, his insight, and even so, trust in his ability to keep luffy safe (e.g. skypiea, water7, dressrosa, wano, or in every other arcs really)

(About respect, trust, & admiration, i've talked about those things here, here, and here)

At the end of the day, it's about all the little things... all the subtle little things.

It's about how luffy was willing to stay still (for once in his life) to accompany zoro during his wound treatment (here)

It's about the way luffy seeks out his first mate for literally anything.. but especially for all the mundane things (here)

It's about luffy perception of time when it comes to zoro, How he misses him (here)

It's about the way THE monkey d. luffy is willing to share his food with zoro (here)

It's about luffy's disappointment when he realized that zoro wasn't there with him at impel down (here)

It's about the way luffy cried out of worry for zoro (baratie and sabaody, here)

It's about how luffy sometimes uses zoro-tachi when talking about his crewmates (here)

It's about him getting so excited to see zoro again in wano to the point of blushing, it's about him being so worried for zoro in skypiea (after finding zoro's unconscious body) or sabaody arc (before and after zoro vanished), it's about him taking zoro seriously (in enies lobby, punk hazard, dressrosa), it's about him being the happiest and silliest when fighting alongside zoro, it's about the way he likes to annoy/tease zoro, it's the way-

Luffy and zoro's strength are literally the closest thing to equal (compared to the rest of straw hats) and they both equally stink (cuz they rarely bathe) they like to fight, they like to feast, they share braincells, they are very similiar.. but also can't be more different. They clash (personality-wise) but still blend perfectly. They are so compatible that i can't even imagine someone capable of handling them (like i'm talking about 'forever' kind of handling) if that someone isn't one of them??

[sixofclovers]

saw your recent post (cool as shit btw that's really incredible) but I have to ask if you like ENA Dream BBQ?? I would not be surprised if that game's animation was inspired off of you or vice versa

Anyway, how did you learn to animate? I've tried once or twice but have been to intimidated to actually start. I can draw still images but I feel like it's witchcraft when you animators actually make them move

Thanks so much! I have to say I'd never heard of ENA Dream BBQ before (not much of a gamer, that is a random string of words to me) but a few others have mentioned it too- I can see the similarities! No association as far as I know tho haha, but it looks really cool

I started animating just before UNI and did it for my undergrad, but didn't engage in the environment tbh- I honestly learned to animate by sitting down and animating, I know that's the lame common answer but you really learn the most by doing. I've just started my masters (after 6 years away from school and a whole new attitude) and still have sooo much to learn (exciting). I also began animating in toonboom (a bit intimidating) but apps like flip-a-clip, procreate, even clip studio paint are great for getting a feel for frames and timing, keeping it simple helped me

To actually start out I'd recommend doing studies and the basics, do some small exercises on Disney's 12 principles of animation, do the bouncing ball, try a walk cycle, follow a tutorial you like on YT, do some life drawing. If you can draw still images draw two in different poses and start by adding a single drawing between them to see how it moves, how the timing feels. When you get sick of that try animating your fave character with their hair blowing in the wind, blinking, something small and fun to reset :) Especially if you can already draw it can feel demoralising to not be as good when you first start animating, but that just means you have a good foundation

I also think it helps to enjoy the process, though it can be tedious or frustrating. I know people make jokes about it being a pain but it's like bringing something to life, its awesome. And try to find some pride in whatever you make because you'll have learned so much to improve next time

This was my first animation over 10 years ago, I watched that A Lullaby for Gods and loved it so much I tried my own. You don't have to share your work cause I know that can feel vulnerable, but make what you like and keep what you make hasn't steered me wrong yet :)

[mariuspompom]

So @faintingheroine said that Javert is more of a class traitor than Ηeathcliff because at least Heathcliff directs his cruelty towards upper class people. I think that, technically speaking, Javert's class traitor traits are indeed worse. I mean his life purpose is literally to extinguish people that have a background similar to his, which is the very definition of a class traitor. The peak of his brutality and inhumanity is the way he targeted a famished, sick prostitute, the way he treated her like an animal, terrorized her, prevented her from finally getting her daughter back and gloated while tearing down her last anchor in life. This deliberate, senseless cruelty against a person as weak, as helpless, as innocuous as Fantine is truly something that technically exceeds even Heathcliff's evil deeds. Heathcliff too targeted people who were weaker than him (Isabella, the children) but at the very least these people belonged to the privileged upper class and he still deep down felt inferior to them, so you can at least give him that.

And yet I feel Heathcliff is more "morally reprehensible" than Javert. Heathcliff's motivations are purely individualistic, he's a very selfish human being and above all, he wants revenge. Javert may be a textbook class traitor but he does have his principles, bigoted principles but principles nonetheless. He has a specific mission and he does his duty, following a specific set of rules. When he fails at his duty and violates this set of rules, he immediately applies to himself the exact same cruelty he applied to others, and this happens twice. The first time, when he thought that he had accused an innocent man and questioned an authority (double vice), he immediately demands his removal from the police. The second time, when he realizes he fucked up, he kills himself. Hugo is particularly respectful of his blind devotion to duty, even in Javert's most hateful moments. Ironically that can also be used against him because it gives him this inhumane, robotic quality. Heathcliff being a classic, egotistical villain who's after revenge gives his evil deeds a much more "relatable" vibe. We can all relate to the desire for revenge, whereas Javert's sterilized, distorted view of the world is particularly eery. But in my opinion this is precisely why he's a level above Heathcliff. Or at the very least their brand of antagonist is quite different.

Receipts:

"I have often been severe in the course of my life towards others. That is just. I have done well. Now, if I were not severe towards myself, all the justice that I have done would become injustice. Ought I to spare myself more than others? No! What! I should be good for nothing but to chastise others, and not myself! Why, I should be a blackguard! Those who say, ‘That blackguard of a Javert!’ would be in the right. [...] Mr. Mayor, I must treat myself as I would treat any other man. When I have subdued malefactors, when I have proceeded with vigor against rascals, I have often said to myself, ‘If you flinch, if I ever catch you in fault, you may rest at your ease!’ I have flinched, I have caught myself in a fault. So much the worse! Come, discharged, cashiered, expelled! [...] Mr. Mayor, the good of the service demands an example. I simply require the discharge of Inspector Javert.” All this was uttered in a proud, humble, despairing, yet convinced tone, which lent indescribable grandeur to this singular, honest man.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Excuse me, Mr. Mayor, but this must not be. A mayor does not offer his hand to a police spy.” He added between his teeth:— “A police spy, yes; from the moment when I have misused the police. I am no more than a police spy.”

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Probity, sincerity, candor, conviction, the sense of duty, are things which may become hideous when wrongly directed; but which, even when hideous, remain grand: their majesty, the majesty peculiar to the human conscience, clings to them in the midst of horror; they are virtues which have one vice,—error. The honest, pitiless joy of a fanatic in the full flood of his atrocity preserves a certain lugubriously venerable radiance. Without himself suspecting the fact, Javert in his formidable happiness was to be pitied, as is every ignorant man who triumphs. Nothing could be so poignant and so terrible as this face, wherein was displayed all that may be designated as the evil of the good.

He's still a piece of shit though, just to clarify.

[jaydenix]

Why Mirta is my favourite Winx Club character

I mean, the aesthetic helps. I like redheads and goths, which she is both of, also she has that black sleeveless top which seems to keep popping in my "literally me" characters (Susie from Deltarune, Dipper from Gravity Falls, and Hilda from Pokemon B&W)

So what do I see in Mirta?... Idk I like her ig, what? I don't have to have super well-thought opinions every time, she's just cool! And you know it!

But I guess a little extra analysis wouldn't hurt would it:

So as we all know, Winx Club's witches aren't the best. The show takes a very simplistic view that fairies are innately good, and witches are innately evil. This essentialist view has been critiqued extensively overtime and for good reason: it's a major missed opportunity to have such a narrow idea of what fairies and witches are, and also is just not very original. Witches and witchcraft in media have been portrayed extensively as just simply evil with no real explanation. Winx Club could have chosen to have taken a more interesting and original interpretation, but true to the shows mission statement of being brutally average, it doesn't. I've got some of my own ideas of how they could've handled this and I'll probably share those in a future post. But sufficed to say: Winx Club's witches are definitely a disappointment (for a more comprehensive look at witches, see Unicorn of War's video on YouTube about the subject).

But then we have Mirta, the one good witch supposedly. Bar the Trix, the ancestral witches, and maybe Griffin she's probably the most important witch in the show at least earlier on. The fact that she's actually different by being good invites intrigue to her character, she actually believes in something which is really quite cool and a nice standout amongst the rest. The Trix clearly are the mean girls in Cloud Tower with other witches wanting to be like them or to be friends with them. Lucy, Mirta's best friend, is in this camp and is disillusioned with her looks and supposed status and seeks to remedy this by trying to be more like the Trix. Mirta on the other hand doesn't follow this dogma and tries to convince Lucy to stay clear of them. This is great, though as I've said it would've been nice if the show portrayed witches more broadly as being a bit less black and white. Her assistance to the Winxes was cool too informing them of the Trix' plans and actions. Wow! Isn't that so awesome! She was shaping up to be an interesting and well-developed and fleshed out side character and then they remembered it was season 1 and that's illegal so they turn her into a pumpkin so they can forget about her. Why? Because fuck you! That's why! Though seriously, I don't mind in theory she was turned into a pumpkin but like really? She could've been a really fun part of the equation throughout the latter parts of season 1 as like the Winxes' witch counterpart. ALSO, when they bring her back to Alfea in pumpkin form, did they not think to like, ask Faragonda to turn her back? The Trix did the spell pre-dragonflame I highly doubt it's anything Faragonda or at the very least Griffin couldn't handle which I'd imagine they'd probably want to inform her of what'd happen considering she's one of her students?! Man if I was Mirta I'd be PISSED off. #JusticeForMirta. Eventually she's freed from her pumpkinhood and once season 1 concludes she decides to become a fairy and transfers to Alfea. Like with becoming a pumpkin: I don't hate that she does this on principle, but I do think it says a lot about how the show writes its witches that the one they make out to be good-natured ends up choosing to become a fairy. Like the view of fairies and witches is THAT rigid.

Though I also do think it's a fun transgender analogy, the idea of being able to transition from witch to fairy and vice versa. The 4Kids dub takes this idea much more seriously with Mirta being described as "transmagic" and Darcy also states "she claims to be fairy who just so be happened to be born in the wrong body", this appears to be a very intentional parallel to the "born in the wrong body" idea that is often used to explain what being trans feels like*, and this was back in 2007 for crying out loud. Additionally Mirta and Lucy are probably the closest thing the main show has to a queer couple, obviously not canon by any means, but they have a very strong bond and are shown to dance together at the end of season 2 (or was it 3 I forgot). Mirta therefore arguably has the most going for her out of any character when it comes to Queer representation.

*Just to be clear, I know plenty of trans people dislike and discredit the "born in the wrong body" narrative, I'm just pointing it out because it does seem this is what the scriptwriters were aiming for.

I like Mirta a lot because of what she could have been. I really think she's an awesome character who had a lot of potential to be fleshed out way more and serve a more involved role in her allyship with the Winxes in season 1 and beyond. It would've been so cool and she deserved way better. I imagine many would be wondering if I think she should've been part of the Winx as she's probably the second most commonly proposed member besides Roxy to be one, and the answer to that is fairly definitive no. Six to me has always felt like a natural limit for these kinds of groups, any more and it starts to be a bit much, which is why I'm glad Roxy didn't become a proper part of the group when season 5 came around (though she still deserved more than what she got). Simply adding Mirta the Winx would ignore the problem that she doesn't get fleshed out enough as a character. Maybe it could've worked in some alternate timeline but she could've been a useful asset to the Winx and the show as a whole whilst not necessarily being a member.

So that's why I like Mirta, she's a fun character who I will defend that she should've gotten more until the day I die. This gay little goth redhead has been my favourite for a long time and I don't see that changing any time soon. Keep stanning Mirta people.

P.S: I really didn't expect this post to get this long LOL I genuinely was gonna post just the "idk I like her" bit and then move on but I was like "ehh, I'll write a little bit" and then I spent 2 hours writing way this whole thing it's 3am I need spiritual assistance okay BYE.

[traditionaldesires]

A bottom’s sexuality

I have been thinking over the years about what it means to be a bottom and I decided I want to try putting the standards I have developed for myself into words. There may be more posts eventually, but I’ll start with the subject that is at the core of being a bottom, sex(uality).

To start with, I know there are people who may accuse me of double standards for not applying the same to tops, but that is a false comparison. There are standards for how planes and cars are built, that are uniform within each category, but they are not the same across. Some basic principles are shared, like that the vessel needs to be safe, but otherwise it would not make sense to apply the plane standards to cars and vice versa. Similarly, tops and bottoms are not identical and while basic human decency should be expected from both, the standards are only uniform within people of the same group.

Below are the bare minimum standards I think any bottom should live up to and that I do my best to adhere to.

Keep the body count low. Staying a virgin until marriage is admirable if one can achieve it, but for most it is unrealistic as one enters at least some relationship before marriage. A good target is to keep sexual contacts within such committed relationships and not date every person you run into. Bottoming is riskier in terms of STDs and if I have been all around town, what does it say about my ability to stay loyal in a marriage?

Masturbation should at most be seen as a harm reduction activity to stay away from hookups while single, not as a pleasant pastime. When married (or in a committed relationship) it is cheating and not to be done, period. Time should be spent building my character to be a good wife.

One way to spend that time when married is preparing for marital duties. Bottoming often requires preparations and there are almost always ways to make oneself more attractive for one’s husband. Understanding one’s husband’s likes and catering to them is a key building block for a successful marriage.

Sex is called a marital duty because it is not about the bottom’s enjoyment. I consent to sex on my husband’s terms when marrying and offer myself in exchange for his affection and protection.

When married, it is ultimately up to one’s husband to set the expectations. From observations I do, however, see how damaging to the harmony of marriages bottoms’ sexual liberation is. A wife that drools over other men, flaunting herself to them and playing with herself rather than servicing her husband is a recipe for divorce. Maybe I’ll edit this later if I find better ways to formulate my ”ideology”, this was just my first attempt to put words on it.